Egypt's Annual Core Inflation Soars to 40.3% in February: CBE

MENA, Ahram Online 

Thursday 9 Mar 2023

The annual core inflation rate recorded 40.3 percent in February, compared to 31.2 percent in January 2023, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said in a statement on Thursday.

File Photo: The Central Bank of Egypt. Al-Ahram

In a statement on Thursday, the CBE said that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) recorded a monthly rate of 8.1 percent in February 2023, compared to 1.2 percent in the same month of last year.

The CPI recorded a monthly rate of 6.3 percent in January 2023.

Earlier Thursday, Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) said that the annual headline inflation surged in February to 31.9 percent, up from 10 percent in February 2022 and 26.5 percent last month.

The figures are the highest in almost five years and well beyond the inflation target the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) set at seven percent (±2 percent) for one year.

CAPMAS attributed the increase on a monthly basis to the rise in the prices of bread and grains by 9.2 percent, poultry and meat by 29.7 percent, seafood by 19.5 percent, and dairy products by 11.1 percent.

The agency ascribed the rise in annual inflation mainly to the significant increase in the prices of food and beverages by 61.5 percent, entertainment and cultural services by 40.9 percent, restaurants and hotels by 50.3 percent, and healthcare by 16.8 percent.