Data from the Egyptian Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics showed that consumer price inflation in cities rose to 5.7 percent on an annual basis in November, from 4.5 percent in October, largely due to the increase in the prices of vegetables, especially tomatoes.
Thus, inflation is less than the central bank’s target range of nine percent, with more or less three percentage points.
The data showed that the prices of the vegetable group increased on an annual basis in November by 25.8% due to the increase in the prices of the permanent vegetables group by 60.8%, as the prices of tomatoes increased by 127.6% and the bell pepper 15.8%
According to central bank data, Egypt's core inflation rate rose to 4.012 percent year on year in November, from 3.9 percent in October. The calculation of core inflation does not include the prices of highly volatile commodities such as food.
The inflation figures for November were higher than expected due to the rise in the prices of the food and beverage group, and the December figures are expected to rise to 6.1 per cent on an annual basis and 0.2 per cent on a monthly basis.
The agency’s data showed an increase in the prices of beef and buffalo by 12.9 percent and the fruit group by 3.3 percent.
In this context, Capital Economics revealed, in a note issued by it, that the jump in inflation in November still places it below the lower bound of the target level by the Central Bank of Egypt, leaving the door open to reducing interest rates again over the next twelve months to support the economy.
Source (Asharq Al-Awsat Newspaper, Edited)
