Bangalore — Egypt’s annual urban consumer inflation accelerated to a higher-than expected 13.6% year-on-year in July from 13.2% in June, data from the country’s statistics agency CAPMAS showed on Wednesday.
Month on month, headline inflation increased by 1.3%, compared to a 0.1% decrease in June.
A Reuters poll of 14 economists had predicted a median annual inflation rate of 13.2% for July.
Among the biggest annual price increases were food and beverages and hotels and restaurants, according to CAPMAS. These included grains and bread, dairy products and eggs.
Egypt has been hurt by the increase in global commodity prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The monthly increase in prices could add to pressure on the central bank to raise overnight interest rates when it meets to decide on Aug. 18. It kept rates unchanged at its last meeting in June.
Egypt’s Central Bank targets an inflation rate between 5% and 9% but said when it raised interest rates by 200 basis points in May that it would temporarily tolerate inflation above that level.
*Lina Najem; Anant Chandak; Patrick Werr; Editing: Andrew Heavens & Toby Chopra – Reuters
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