July inflation jumps to highest level since pound float

CAIRO – 10 August 2017: Egypt's annual urban consumer price inflation hiked in July to 33 percent from 29.8 percent in June, state statistics body announced Thursday.

The figure is highest since the flotation of the Egyptian pound in November.

The annual inflation rate rose to 34.2 percent in comparison with July 2016, the official Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said Thursday.

Egypt raised fuel prices on June 29 by up to 50 percent to meet the terms of a $12-billion International Monetary Fund loan agreement.

In efforts to curb inflation, the Central Bank of Egypt raised interest rates by 200 basis points (two percent) in early July, hoping the “temporary” measure to succeed in limiting spending in the market.

As a result, economists expected Egypt’s inflation to keep climbing over the coming months to fall sharply by the end of 2017.

The government is optimistic that inflation would take four months to stabilize, Minister of Finance Amr El-Garhy said in July.