CAPMAS: Egypt's Annual Inflation Soars to 33.9 pct in March

Egyptian annual headline inflation rate surged to 33.9 percent in March 2023, up from 12.1 percent in March 2022, reported the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) on Monday.

The surge in inflation was ascribed to a 62.7 percent year-on-year (YoY) jump in the prices of food and beverages.

The prices of housing, water, electricity, natural gas and fuel increased by 8.8 percent YoY last month, while prices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco soared 12.1 percent YoY.

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

Furthermore, prices of clothing and footwear rose 20.9 percent YoY, while healthcare services' prices ballooned 17.7 percent YoY.

Since last March, prices of transportation jumped 21.4 percent YoY, and prices of hotels and restaurants surged 48.2 percent YoY.

On the other hand, Egypt's monthly headline inflation decelerated to 3.2 percent in March 2023, down from 7.1 percent in February.

In its last monetary policy meeting, the CBE increased interest rates by two percent (200 bps) in an attempt to control soaring inflation.

Under its four-year Extended Fund Facility Programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Egypt is committed to taming inflation down to seven percent by FY2024/2025 while expanding the adoption of flexible interest and foreign exchange rate regimes.

Egypt is currently under the first review for its Extended Fund Facility (EFF) which allows it to receive a total loan of $3 billion over 46 months from the IMF. The fund has yet to announce the review’s results.