Since Egypt’s 2011 revolution, the country’s economy has been suffering, with almost all economic indicators pointing to a deteriorating situation—and this despite the unprecedented support of some of the Arab Gulf countries. Subsidies, which have always represented the social contract between the governing regime and the population, are a major problem. Though reforming subsidies has consistently been a concern, no regime over the last 60 years has been able to implement serious measures. Rather, a piecemeal approach has been used when adjustments to the subsidies system became urgent. As long as the system could be sustained, even with an extremely high economic cost full of inefficiencies and wasted resources, profound reform did not take place. But with Egypt in such dire economic straits, the government is starting to pay more attention to subsidy reform, particularly in regard to energy and food subsidies.