Egypt's unemployment rate has risen to 11.9 per cent in the third quarter of 2011 said the head of the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics [CAPMAS), Abu Bakr El-Gendi, in a press conference on Thursday.

This quarter's rate is highest level of unemployment in 10 years in Egypt, with 3.1 million out of work. This is 1.8 per cent worse from the previous quarter, which saw an 8.9 per cent rate of unemployment. Remarkably, this quarter's unemployment rate is 35.3 per cent higher than the same quarter last year.

El-Gendi pointed out that the rate was due to the impact of political unrest and the country's shaky economic condition.

On Thursday Egypt's October inflation statistics registered 7.5 per cent, a significant dip from September's figure of 8.5 per cent, according to CAPMAS.

Urban Consumer Price Inflation (CPI), the most closely watched indicator, also eased to 7.1 per cent in the 12 months to October, down from 8.5 per cent in September.

Food prices, which account for 44 per cent of Egypt's CPI, dropped 0.5 per cent below September’s level.

The annual increase in food prices dropped to 8.7 per cent in October from 8.9 in September.