The pyramids of Giza, Egypt

The Egyptian government decided to readapt summer time staring on this month.

The cabinet's spokesperson Hossam El-Qweish informed about it on Wednesday 7th of May, 2014.

Starting on 15th of May Egypt will switch to daylight saving time (DST) by adjusting the clocks one hour forward. However, the change will be lifted during Ramadan.

The preliminary dates for the time change for 2014 are following:

• 15 May – advance to UTC+3 (EEST)
• 29 June – return to UTC+2 (start of Ramadan)
• 28 July – advance to UTC+3 (end of Ramadan)
• 26 September – return to UTC+2 (EET)

In April 2011 the cabinet headed by then-prime minister Essam Sharaf authorized a decree cancelling daylight saving time.

Daylight saving time was first adopted in Egypt in 1988 to reduce electricity consumption. The electricity and energy ministry later submitted a study to the cabinet revealing that implementing daylight saving time had no impact in electricity consumption.

Though many in the Ministry of Electricity disagree over the effectiveness of DST. The Cabinet said in a statement that it was forced to reinstate daylight saving time in order to take advantage of the extra hour in the daytime due to the energy crisis.

In Egypt the standard time is UTC+2 and during daylight savings time UTC+3.

See the pros and cons of daylight saving time.