CAIRO: Egypt’s annual urban consumer price inflation accelerated to 13.9% in April from 13.6% in March, matching analyst expectations, data from statistics agency CAPMAS showed on Saturday.
Month on month, prices were 1.5% higher at the end of April than at end-March. Food and beverage prices decelerated by 1.5%. Annually, food and beverage prices rose by 6.0%.
The median forecast of analysts polled by Reuters was for annual inflation to have climbed to 13.9%. They cited an increase in the official price of fuel as the main cause.
Inflation soared following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, which prompted foreign investors to withdraw billions of dollars from Egyptian treasuries. Headline inflation rose by a record 38.0% in September 2023.
M2 money supply expanded in the year to end-March, but at a slower rate, dropping to 25.8% from an all-time high of 33.9% at the end of February, central bank data showed.
Egypt devalued its currency, raised interest rates by 600 basis points and signed an $8 billion financial support package with the International Monetary Fund in March last year, helping to bring its finances under control.
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