Youssef Boutros Ghali, the Egyptian finance minister, defended new government measures designed to pay for a rise in public sector salaries on Tuesday, denying that they would unleash another wave of inflation.

The opposition had charged that the measures, which include increasing the price of fuel, would make life even more difficult for the people the government wanted to help with salary rises announced by President Hosni Mubarak last week. But Mr Ghali estimated the impact on inflation would be about half a percentage point.