New president under fire as police use tear gas to disperse taxi drivers angered by sudden price increase

Cairo's taxi and microbus drivers have staged impromptu protests in anger at a surprise rise in fuel prices, providing an early test of the popularity of Egypt's new president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.

In several Cairo neighbourhoods roads were temporarily blocked as fleets of the city's distinctive white taxis came to a standstill, while in the canal cities of Suez and Ismailia police used tear gas to disperse a small gathering of microbus drivers.

Egyptians woke up on Saturday to the news that petrol prices had risen by up to 78%, part of a broader swath of price increases that the government says is necessary to boost Egypt's ailing economy.

Food and energy subsidies traditionally eat up a quarter of state spending and the government is taking steps to reform its subsidy programme and revive an economy badly scarred by three-and-a-half years of political upheaval.

Successive governments have avoided such a decision, fearful of a potential backlash from a population already faced with rising food prices and an unemployment rate of 13.4 percent. More than a quarter of Egypt's 82-million strong population lives in poverty.

How the country reacts to the new price hikes, just one prong of the government's broader austerity strategy, will provide clear indications of the strength of Sisi's popularity. Although he was elected with over 96 percent of a public vote in May, turnout was sluggish. A year after the overthrow of former president Mohamed Morsi, Egypt remains jaded and divided.

Although Egypt's prime minister defended the subsidy cuts on Saturday, saying that the savings would be channelled towards improving health and education, Egypt's newspaper front pages gave his words short shrift the following morning.

"The hour of suffering has struck," read the headline on privately owned daily Al-Masry Al-Youm. "The fire of fuel lights the street," said Al-Shorouk, an independent newspaper.

"I would not have voted for Sisi if I had known he would do this," said Ahmed Mohamed, a Dokki microbus driver, after returning from the neighbourhood's drivers' strike. "The poor cannot bear it. With the money I made yesterday, I could only just afford food for my family after buying petrol. But today, I'm worried I will take nothing home at all."

Across the neighbourhood, drivers spoke of their disbelief at the overnight price increase. "Even meat was more expensive today because the driver said it cost more to transport it. Does the president really think we will take this?" asked Ahmed Maher, another taxi driver.

Analysts have cautiously praised the Sisi administration's willingness to tackle the politically sensitive subsidy issue, but express concern over the haphazard manner in which it came to pass.

"It seems that little coordination with key stakeholders and the people likely to be affected by these changes was done," said Karim El Assir, an analyst at Signet institute, a Cairo-based economic thinktank. "Reform of energy subsidies is a key policy priority for Egypt but this is really only the first step towards serious reform and there is still much to be done."