Egypt’s annual urban inflation jumps to 35.7 percent in February

Egypt’s annual urban consumer price inflation jumped to 35.7 percent in February from 29.8 percent in January, driven mainly by a rise in food and beverage prices, data from statistics agency CAPMAS showed on Sunday.

The increase in inflation comes well before a surge expected to result from last week’s devaluation of the currency. The central bank on Wednesday allowed the Egyptian pound to fall to about 50 to the dollar from 30.85, where it had been fixed for the past 12 months.

A poll of 14 analysts had expected February inflation to slow to a median 25.1 percent. Before February, Egypt’s inflation rate had been falling from a historic high of 38.0 percent in September.

Month-on-month, prices rose by 11.4 percent in February, up from just 1.6 percent in January. Food prices leapt by 15.9 percent, up from 1.4 percent in January.

“The sharp rise in the annual reading was fueled by a surge in monthly inflation of both food (F&B) and non-food items and was in spite of the favorable base year contribution of -5.5 percent,” Allen Sandeep of Naeem Brokerage said in a note.