CAIRO (Reuters) -Egypt’s annual urban consumer price inflation accelerated to 13.9% in April from 13.6% in March, matching analyst expectations, data from statistics agency CAPMAS showed on Saturday.
Month on month, prices were 1.5% higher at the end of April than at end-March. Food and beverage prices decelerated by 1.5%. Annually, food and beverage prices rose by 6.0%.
The median forecast of analysts polled by Reuters was for annual inflation to have climbed to 13.9%. They cited an increase in the official price of fuel as the main cause.
Inflation soared following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, which prompted foreign investors to withdraw billions of dollars from Egyptian treasuries. Headline inflation rose by a record 38.0% in September 2023.
M2 money supply expanded in the year to end-March, but at a slower rate, dropping to 25.8% from an all-time high of 33.9% at the end of February, central bank data showed.
Egypt devalued its currency, raised interest rates by 600 basis points and signed an $8 billion financial support package with the International Monetary Fund in March last year, helping to bring its finances under control.
(Reporting by Muhammad Al Gebaly and Enas Alasheray. Writing by Patrick Werr. Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Mark Potter)
