Egypt’s annual inflation drops to 13.1% in March

CAIRO – 10 April 2018: Egypt’s annual consumer price inflation slipped to 13.1 percent in March 2018, compared to 32.5 percent in the same month of 2017, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

On a monthly basis, inflation increased 1 percent in March to record 269.8 points, compared to 267 points in February, CAPMAS said.

CAPMAS attributed the increase of inflation on a monthly basis to the rise of some commodities' prices, including vegetables by 3.9 percent, meat and poultry by 1.6 percent, fish and seafood by 5.2 percent, and fruits by 1.8 percent.

In February, Inflation dropped to 14.3 percent compared to 31.7 percent in the same month of 2017.

Inflation has increased in Egypt since the floatation of the Egyptian pound in November 2016, reaching a high record level in July due to energy subsidy cuts; inflation has gradually eased since July 2017.

The Egyptian government expected inflation to decline by the end of this fiscal year (FY) from 17 percent to 13 percent, according to Minister of Finance Amr el-Garhy.

International financial and research organizations predicted that the inflation will continue its downtrend till the end of this fiscal year; Fitch Rating expected that inflation in Egypt will fall further this year but will remain in double digits, averaging around 13 percent.

Fitch assumed that further subsidy reform in July will lead to energy price increases, given the increase in oil prices.

The IMF said in a report earlier that it expected inflation to fall to 12 percent by June and to single digits by 2019.