CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s annual urban consumer inflation accelerated faster than expected in October, climbing to a four-year high of 16.2%, data from the statistics agency CAPMAS showed on Thursday.
Year-on-year inflation increased to its highest since October 2018, when it hit 17.68%, from 15.0% in September.
Core inflation rose to 19% in October from 18% the month prior.
The median forecast in a Reuters poll of 12 economists had expected inflation of only 15.6%. Five economists also forecast that core inflation, due out later on Thursday, would come in at a median 18.0%.
The increase reflected a sharp jump in month-on-month inflation, with prices rising 2.6% in October compared to 1.6% in September, Naeem Brokerage said in a note.
The increase was “driven mainly by higher food prices, school tuition fees, and, a noticeable jump in the recreation & culture index”, Naeem wrote.
The central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee, after raising interest rates by 2 percentage points at a special meeting on Oct. 27, said it expected elevated global and domestic prices to keep headline inflation above its target of between 5% and 9% in the final quarter of 2022. The committee next meets on Dec. 22.
(Reporting by Mahmoud Salama and Yomna Ehab; Writing by Lina Najem and Patrick Werr; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Alison Williams and Toby Chopra)
