Egypt’s inflation reaches 4-year high

The annual consumer price inflation rate in Egyptian cities reached 15 percent in September, its highest level in nearly four years, the state-run Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) reported yesterday.

This is the highest annual rate of consumer price inflation in Egypt’s cities since November 2018, when it recorded a rise to 15.7 percent.

The annual consumer price inflation rate reached 14.6 percent in August. According to CAPMAS, the annual inflation rate across the country stood at 15.3 percent in September, the same rate that was recorded in August.

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) aims for a rate ranging between five and nine percentage points, but in August it said that it expects a temporary rise from its target rate in the coming months adding that inflation rates would decline again gradually thereafter.

The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee is scheduled to meet at the start of November.