The Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) stated on Thursday that Egypt's annual inflation rate dropped to 13.6% year-over-year down from 33.2% in August, 2017. The consumer price index increased by 1.7% month-over-month, recording 294.9 points last month, according to the CAPMAS. Notably, inflation dropped in July compared to June, registering at 13.8%, affected by decisions of raised fuel prices. Furthermore, annual inflation jumped sharply in 2017, as a result of the government's reform measures over the past two years, including the pound flotation and the increase of energy prices several times. Moreover, inflation hit a peak of 34.2% in July, the highest in nearly three years. Hence, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE)raised the interest rate after the pound flotation in November, 2016 threefold by 7%. The first time was directly after the flotation by 3%, then 2% last May, followed by 2% in July, then in February and March the CBE cut interest rates by about 1%, respectively. Meanwhile, the CBE targets to reach inflation rate averaging between 10% and 16% in the last quarter of 2018.
