Recession hits Egypt's used car market amid price hikes

"I am here to sell my old car and get a bigger one for my family. As an employee, I cannot afford a brand new car especially amid the ongoing price hikes," said Sayyid Dahed, a 38-year-old employee at a state-run water company, while displaying his orange 1972 Volkswagen Beetles for sale in Egypt's massive used car marketplace.

At the outskirts of Nasr City in the capital Cairo, thousands of car owners, sellers, buyers and dealers gather on Fridays and Sundays at the huge second-hand car marketplace with hundreds of cars parked on the two sides of the main Ahmed al-Zomor Street before reaching the main yard that contains around a thousand used cars for sale.

Most of them complained recession in the market due to the recent price hikes resulting from the government's latest energy subsidy cuts that raised the prices of fuel, natural gas, electricity and others, arguing the country's economic reform plans affected the second-hand marketplace.

"I bought an old blue Hyundai Accent for 41,000 Egyptian pounds ( 5,600 U.S. dollars) while it is worth no more than 38,000 Egyptian pounds," said Ahmed al-Safti, who came from Suez Canal province of Ismailia to Cairo to visit the marketplace, referring the reason for the price hike of brand new cars by 3,000 Egyptian pounds that reflected on used cars.