Egypt’s annual core inflation reaches to 2.4% in December: CBE

CAIRO – 10 February 2019: The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said that Egypt’s annual core inflation rate increased to 2.4 percent in December 2019, up from 2.1 percent in November 2019, according to a report.

Core inflation discounts or strips out certain categories that are considered more volatile.

CBE said in a statement on its website Tuesday that the core inflation recorded a monthly rate of 0.2 percent in December 2019, compared to -0.1 percent in November 2019, and 0 percent in December 2018.

The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) announced earlier that Egypt’s annual consumer price inflation recorded 7.1 percent in December 2019, compared to 3.6 percent in November 2019.

Monthly headline urban CPI inflation recorded -0.2 percent in December 2019, compared to -0.3 percent in the previous month and to -3.4 percent in the same month of previous year, according to CAPMAS.

Inflation has surged in Egypt since the flotation of the Egyptian pound in November 2016, reaching a high record level in July 2018 due to energy subsidy cuts, and gradually easing since July 2019.

Egypt targets an inflation rate of 10.5 percent in fiscal year of 2019/2020 and was targeting 13 percent in 2018/2019 budget.