This paper presents the first comprehensive investigation of long-term poverty trends in Egypt. It uses data from various household surveys covering the period of the last three decades and employs both money metric and multidimensional poverty measurement frameworks. The main finding is that a significant reduction occurred in multidimensional poverty. However, more than one-fifth of the population is still multidimensionally poor, and there are still major gaps to be addressed, especially in child health and in regional disparities. On the other hand, driven mainly by rapid inflation, money-metric poverty has nearly doubled since the early 2000s, and now affects over one-third of the population. For policy recommendations, the paper focuses on the required shifts in fiscal policy. While reforms to improve efficiency in public spending are key, the more urgent challenge is the shrinking fiscal space for social expenditure.