Inflation rose sharply to 13% in November to its highest level since early 2010
Cairo: Egypt’s annual urban consumer inflation rose sharply to 13 per cent in November, according to the state-run Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, up from 10.4 per cent in October to its highest level since early 2010.
The Arab country’s economy, which has been in tatters amid political turbulence since the uprising that overthrew former leader Hosni Mubarak in 2011, grew only 2 per cent in the year to June 30.
“We had expected inflation to further pick up in November from October levels, again on unfavourable base effects and as a result of an expected increase in demand as monetary policy is significantly eased,” an analyst at Beltone Financial said in a client note. “In addition, the butane gas crisis had intensified in November, which most likely led to the increase in shelter price inflation during the month.”
Egypt’s central bank late last week unexpectedly cut key interest rates for the third time since August as it chose to stimulate the economy over controlling inflation. Economists have said the country needs to see a gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of about 4 per cent in order to create more jobs.
The Arab state, one of the most populous in the region, is also grappling with rising unemployment — which edged up to 13.4 per cent in the third quarter. About 70 per cent of those unemployed in Egypt are youth.
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