CAIRO, Sept 10 (Askume) – Egypt’s annual urban consumer price inflation unexpectedly rose to 26.2% in August from 25.7% in July, data from statistics agency CAPMAS showed on Tuesday.
Prices rose 2.1% quarter-on-quarter, up from 0.4% in July. Food prices rose 1.8% in August, after a 0.3% decline in July, up 29.0% from the same period last year.
A survey of 19 analysts estimated that urban inflation would slow to 25.1% in August.
Sarah Saada of CI Capital is one of the few analysts who predicts inflation will accelerate.
“We expected this because the August data reflected the energy price hike announced in the last week of July. This includes diesel, which has a cascading effect. Does it make a difference?” he told Askume in an interview after the data was released.
Last month’s price rise was due to rising summer crop prices, a 10-15% increase in fuel prices in late July, a 25-33% rise in metro fares in early August and some hikes in August.
Inflation has gradually eased from a record high of 38.0% in September, pushing the central bank’s real overnight lending rate to turn positive in July for the first time since January 2022 to 27.25%.
