Egypt's headline inflation increases to 13.6% in March

It reached a record high of 38.0 percent in September 2023

An Egyptian street vendor rides a bicycle as he carries bread on wooden racks in Cairo, Egypt November 12, 2024. REUTERS

Egypt's annual urban consumer price inflation accelerated to 13.6 percent in March from 12.8 percent in February, higher than analysts had expected, data from the state statistics agency CAPMAS showed on Thursday.

The median forecast of analysts polled by Reuters was for annual urban consumer inflation to have slipped to 12.6 percent.

Month on month, prices were 1.6 percent higher in March than in February. Food and beverage prices climbed 3.5 percent in March.

Annually, food and beverage prices rose by 6.6 percent, up from 3.7 percent in February.

Annual urban inflation had plunged to 12.8 percent in February from 24.0 percent in January, largely the result of a statistical base effect, as exceptionally fast price increases of the past two years were no longer reflected in the statistics, analysts said.

Inflation began soaring after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, prompting foreign investors to withdraw billions of dollars from Egyptian treasury markets. The Egyptian government turned to printing pounds to help plug its budget deficit.

Headline inflation reached a record high of 38.0 percent in September 2023.

M2 money supply has continued to expand, reaching an all-time high of 33.9 percent in the year to end-February, central bank data showed.

In March of last year, Egypt devalued its currency, raised interest rates by 600 basis points and signed an $8 billion financial support package with the International Monetary Fund, helping to bring its finances under control.