Egyptian Inflation Eases In January

Egypt’s annual urban inflation rate slowed slightly to 11.4 percent in January from 11.7 percent in December, the official statistics agency CAPMAS said on Monday. The core annual inflation rate, announced by the central bank, fell to 11.7 percent in January from 11.9 percent in December. Annual inflation hit a four-year high of 13 percent in November. 

Egypt’s economy has continued to suffer from investment outflows and a drop in tourism during political turmoil since autocrat President Hosni Mubarak was toppled in an uprising in early 2011.

Despite inflows of billions of dollars in aid from Gulf Arab states after the army’s ouster last year of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, economic recovery is limited. The army-backed government introduced a 30 billion Egyptian pound stimulus package in 2013 and said it would follow up with a second package of similar size last month, but details of that package have yet to be announced.

Source: Reuters