The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said in a statement on Wednesday, that Egypt's annual inflation fell to15.4% year-over-year (y-o-y), down from 32.9% in September 2017. The CAPMAS stated further that the consumer price index (CPI) increased 2.6% month-over-month (m-o-m), recording 302.7 points last month. The CAPMAS explained that this increase in the CPI is as a result of the price increase of the vegetables by 17.2%, and fruits by 7.4%. Notably, the inflation fell to13.6% y-o-y in August, down from 33.2% in August, 2017. Moreover, inflation fell during July compared to June, which recorded 13.8%, affected by the decision of raising 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 raising energy prices several times. Moreover, inflation hit a peak of 34.2% in July 2017, the highest in nearly three years. Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) increased the interest rate after the pound flotation in November 2016, three times by 7%, the first time was directly after the flotation by 3%, then 2% in May, and 2% in July, then the CBE cut interest rates in February and March by about 1%, respectively. The CBE targets to reach an inflation rate of between 10% and 16% in the last quarter of 2018. In the same context, the CBE said on Wednesday, that the annual core inflation rate fell to 8.6% in September, from 8.8% in August. Bearing in mind that the core inflation does not include commodities, such as fruits and vegetables, due to sharp fluctuations in their prices. The CBE said in a press statement today, that monthly core inflation recorded a negative 0.1% in September, compared to a 0.6% rise in August. Notably, the negative figure means a decline in the rate if compared to the previous month.
