Egypt’s annual inflation records 4.6% in March, rises 0.6% monthly

CAIRO – 9 April 2020: Egypt’s annual consumer price inflation recorded 4.6 percent in March 2020, compared to 13.8 percent in March 2019, state-statistics body said Thursday.

In Feb. 2020, Egypt's annual inflation reached 4.9 percent.

On a monthly basis, inflation recorded 105.8 points in March 2020, marking an increase of 0.6 percent compared to February 2020, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said.

CAPMAS attributed the rise in inflation to the increase in prices of some commodities during the month, as fruits by 3.7 percent, Meat and poultry by 2.4 percent, fish and seafood by 1.6 percent, grain and bread by 0.5 percent, smoke by 5.4 percent, ready-made clothes group by 0.6 percent, and outpatient services by 0.7 percent.


It also referred to the decrease in the prices of dairy, cheese and eggs by 0.8 percent, and vegetables by 0.7 percent.

At the urban level, the annual inflation rate for March 2020 dipped to 5.1 percent, up from 5.3 percent in February.

The sustainable development plan for 2020/2021 expected the inflation rate to increase to 9.8 percent if the crisis continued until December 2020.

Inflation remains within the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) target range of 9 percent, plus or minus 3 percentage points, despite the precautionary measures taken aiming to curb the spread of coronavirus that are expected to raise the rate of inflation.