Egypt’s annual inflation declines to 7.8% in July: CAPMAS

CAIRO – 8 August 2019: Egypt’s annual consumer price inflation rose to 7.8 percent in July 2019, compared to 13 percent in July 2018, state-statistics body said Monday, August 8.

In June, Egypt’s annual consumer price inflation fell to 8.9 percent, down from 13.8 percent in June 2018.

On a monthly basis, inflation increased 1.5 percent in July, recording 312.5 points, compared to 307.8 points in June, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said.

CAPMAS revealed that inflation during January-to-July period of 2019 recorded 11.7 percent, compared to the same period of 2018.

CAPMAS attributed the hike in inflation on a monthly basis to the increase in fuel prices during the last month, as well as the increase in food and drink prices by about 0.5 percent to record 388.4 points, witnessing a rise by about 8 percent compared to June 2018.

At the urban level, the annual inflation rate for July 2019 reached 8.7 percent, down from 9.4 percent in June.

In the period from January to December 2018, the inflation rate hit 14.1 percent.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expected Egypt’s inflation to decline to 20.9 percent in 2018, compared to 23.5 percent in 2017, anticipating it to reach 14 percent in 2019 and 7 percent in 2023.

The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) kept the overnight deposit rate and the overnight lending rate on hold in July. The overnight deposit rate and the overnight lending rate were kept at 15.75 percent and 16.75 percent, respectively, during the fourth meeting of 2019.

Inflation surged in Egypt since the floatation of the Egyptian pound in November 2016, reaching a high record level in July due to energy subsidy cuts, and gradually easing since July.