Egypt's annual urban consumer inflation has registered 11.04% in July, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said on Monday. The CBE mentioned that the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAMPAS) has amended the earlier figure which put the monthly inflation at 10.61%. After the revision, the monthly consumer price index (CPI) was said to register a monthly increase of 3.5%, instead of 3.11%. The figure brings the monthly core CPI calculated by the CBE to 1.79% instead of 1.59% and the annual rate to 9.57% instead of 9.35%. CAPMAS and CBE did not disclose the reason of revising the inflation rates. The official statistics agency has earlier attributed the inflation surge to the rising demand for food commodities such as vegetables, dairy products and poultry, and the government's decision to raise fuel, electricity and tobacco prices in early July. Following the decision, made by the government to help finance the growing budget deficit, economic experts have expected the prices of food items, transportation fares and building materials to increase. Before taking office, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi promised to adopt certain mechanisms to control the rising prices of basic goods in the market. He stressed that the measures would not include imposing fixed prices.
