Egypt reintroduced DST for 2014 to help with the energy crisis

The Egyptian government decided to bring back summer time from this month.

The cabinet's spokesperson, Hossam El-Qweish, announced it on Wednesday 7 May 2014.^[1]

From 15 May Egypt will switch to daylight saving time (DST) by moving the clocks one hour forward. However, DST will be paused during Ramadan.^[1][2]

The preliminary dates for the 2014 time changes are:

• 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.^[1][2]

Egypt first used daylight saving time in 1940, during the Second World War, and brought it back in 1957.^[2][3] The electricity and energy ministry later submitted a study to the cabinet revealing that implementing daylight saving time had no impact on electricity consumption.^[1]

Correction, 26 October 2026: The article first said that daylight saving time was first adopted in Egypt in 1988. Egypt first used it in 1940.^[2][3]

Many in the Ministry of Electricity still doubt that DST works. 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, standard time is UTC+2 and daylight saving time is UTC+3.

See the pros and cons of daylight saving time.

Update, 25 October 2026: The final dates were a little different: clocks went back for Ramadan on the night of 26 June 2014 and forward again on the night of 31 July 2014,^[4] and summer time ended on the night of 25 September 2014.^[2] Egypt then had no summer time until 2023.^[2][5] A return planned for July 2016 was cancelled: see Egypt introduces daylight saving time starting 7 July 2016. See also: Egypt cancels daylight saving time in 2011.