CAIRO: The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said on Sunday that inflation rates in Egypt jumped to 11.7 percent in September, amid rising food prices in the Arab world's most populous nation. Inflation rate notched up during September by 1.8 percent as a result of a significant hike in food prices, as vegetable prices soared 51 percent, meat and poultry by 28.6 percent. Tomato prices also saw an unprecedented hike leading the holding company for food industries-commerce companies to buy tomatoes from farmers directly, as a prelude to selling it in consuming markets for its “real prices,” the report stated. The agency noted in its monthly report of the indices of consumer prices that inflation in rural areas reached 12.5 percent, compared to 11% in urban areas. It pointed to rising food prices by about 21.3 percent overall, pointing out that the prices milk, cheese and eggs rose 10.1 percent, oils and fats 8.6 percent and fruit 11.2 percent as well as sugar and sugary foods 12.1 percent. However, it pointed to a decline in the prices of fish and seafood by 0.15 percent. Ahmed Rakaibi, Chairman of the Holding Company for Food Industries, has assigned its affiliated companies to buy vegetables directly from farmers, especially tomatoes, which recorded a hike in prices over the last few days, causing some anger among citizens. In this context, Minister of Agriculture Amin Abaza said the ministry was considering making a full inventory of all its ports in various provinces, “in preparation for the launch quantities of tomatoes and vegetables in the market,” expecting lower prices in the coming weeks and accused merchants of exploiting the situation and raising the prices of food products. Hamdi Al-Naggar, head of the General Division of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Importers, criticized the ministry of agriculture, because of “the absence of coordination with farmers.” He added that “random control over the sector and farmers cause this crisis.” He stressed the necessity of coordination with the Ministry of Industry, particularly with regard to providing accurate information about the size of the needs of consumers, pointing out that the industry's sauce exhausted large quantities of tomato crop in the recent period. Samir Radwan, an economist and advisor to the investment authority, said the poor are “most affected by rising commodity prices and increases in the rate of inflation,” noting that spending on food and drink consumed the bulk of the income of the Egyptian family. Radwan added that high inflation leads to a decrease in real wage, which “requires the need to increase wages, but must be preceded by an increase in productivity.” Egypt's gross domestic product grew by about 5.3 percent in the last fiscal year. The economy had grown by an average of 7 percent for three years before the global financial crisis in 2008. BM
