Egypt’s inflation rises to 15.4 per cent amid price hikes

CAIRO – Egypt says inflation jumped to 15.4 per cent in September, a rise of more than two percentage points over the previous month.

Data released Wednesday by the state statistics bureau shows an increase in food and beverages prices, the single largest component in the basket of goods and services used to gauge inflation. The rate was 12.8 per cent in August.

Inflation peaked last year, hovering around 30 per cent after the government cut fuel and electricity subsidies. It reached 32.9 per cent in September 2017.

Economic reforms have caused the prices of basic goods to spike, hitting poor and middle-class Egyptians especially hard. Egypt cut subsidies and allowed a currency devaluation in order to secure $12 billion in bailout loans from the International Monetary Fund.