In April, Egypt’s annual urban consumer inflation dropped to 30.6%, above analyst expectations and indicating improvement.
The decrease in inflation is a result of stable exchange rates, falling global commodity prices, and beneficial base effects.
Following prior rate rises in an effort to contain inflation, the nation’s central bank is under pressure to increase overnight interest rates as long as inflation is still high.
Egypt’s annual urban consumer inflation declined to 30.6% in April from 32.7% in March, which was less than analysts had projected, according to data issued on Wednesday by the government’s statistics office, CAPMAS, as viewed by Reuters.
Urban inflation dropped from 6.5% in February to 1.7% in March, a month-over-month reduction. The increase in inflation over the prior year was caused by a series of currency devaluations that started in March 2022, a lengthy foreign currency shortage, and persistent import delivery delays.
The average forecast made by the 13 analysts surveyed indicated that annual urban consumer inflation would drop to 31.0% in April.