File Photo:Egyptians vendor at a vegetable market in Cairo February, 2011 (Photo: Reuters)
Egypt’s annual inflation rate in January decreased to 9.7 percent compared to 10.13 percent in the previous month, influenced by a the sharp fall in food inflation since 2012.
The drop was largely influenced by a fall in food inflation which contributes 40 percent to the inflation rate, according to Jasun Tuvey, an economist at Capital Economics told Ahram Online.
“Food inflation eased from 8.4 percent in December to 5.8 percent in January, its lowest rate since late 2012, as the recent falls in global food prices continued to filter through. We estimate that this knocked around one percentage point off the headline inflation rate,” he said.
He added the fall in food inflation was countered by a pick-up in non-food price pressures such as housing and utilities inflation, which went from 4.6 percent to 9.3 percent, its highest in almost three years.
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