Cairo: Egypt’s annual urban consumer inflation remained steady at 8.2 percent in June but is expected to rise after last week’s jump in fuel prices, official statistics agency CAPMAS said on Thursday.
The government hiked energy prices on Friday by up to 78 per cent in an effort to ease its budget deficit. Gas subsidies were also cut last week, lifting prices by 30-75 per cent, and sales taxes on alcohol and cigarettes rose this week.
Egypt’s annual core inflation rate, which strips out subsidised goods and volatile items including fruit and vegetables, slowed to 8.76 percent in June, down from 8.86 percent in May, the central bank said on its website on Thursday.
CAPMAS head Abu Bakr Al Gindy at a news conference, when asked whether inflation will be higher in July, “I expect so.” When asked whether recent price increases will have a repeated effect on inflation he said that the effect will plateau after July.
“The effect of these things will show clearly next month...
There won’t be continued increases,” he told reporters.
Annual inflation reached its highest in nearly four years in November at 13 percent but has been edging down since then.
Egypt’s economy has been in turmoil since a popular uprising ousted Hosni Mubarak in 2011, deterring tourists and foreign investors and straining finances and foreign reserves.
Despite billions of dollars in aid from Gulf states, and two stimulus packages, economic recovery in the most populous Arab nation has been slow.
