Egypt’s annual urban consumer inflation slightly up to 7.2% in January

Egypt’s annual urban consumer inflation slightly rose to 7.2 percent in January from 7.1 percent in December, the official statistics agency CAPMAS announced on Monday.

Month-on-month urban headline inflation hit 0.7 percent from December, the agency added.

Inflation rates remain within the central bank’s target range of 9 percent, plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Egypt is emerging from a three-year IMF-backed economic reform programme, which witnessed inflation soaring as high as 33 percent during 2017.

The government has raised domestic fuel prices several times, most recently in July, as part of the terms of the $12 billion IMF deal.

The move has in turn driven up prices of food, including fruit and vegetables, with the government and military occasionally intervening to provide staple products at below-market rates.

Over the past two years, price increases have slowed, with annual headline inflation had been dropping to 3.1 percent in October, its lowest since 2005, according to Refinitiv data.

Source: Reuters