Cairo — Egypt’s annual urban consumer price inflation dropped to 34.6% in November from 35.8% in October, pulled down by a slowdown in the rate of food price increases, data from the statistics agency CAPMAS showed on Sunday.
Annual inflation was slightly lower than predicted by analysts. The median forecast of 18 analysts polled had expected a reading of 34.8%.
Month-on-month, prices rose by 1.3% in November, up from 1.0% in October. Food prices rose by 0.2% but surged 64.5 year on year.
Annual inflation had been working its way upwards for two years, hitting a record high of 38.0% in September. The November figure was the lowest since May.
Core inflation, which excludes fuel and some volatile food items, slid to 35.9% in November from 38.1% in October, central bank data showed on Sunday. A median of six of the analysts surveyed had expected it to decelerate to 37.2%.
*Muhammad Al Gebaly, Adam Makary & Tala Ramadan; Patrick Werr; editing: Louise Heavens – Reuters
