Egypt’s annual headline inflation increased slightly to reach 4.8 percent in March 2021, up from 4.6 percent recorded in March 2020, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) announced on Thursday.

Headline monthly inflation also increased by 0.6 percent in March to reach 110.9 points, up from 110.3 points in February, according to CAPMAS.

CAPMAS attributed the increase in inflation to the increase in the prices of some commodities in March, as fruit prices rose by 7.1 percent, meat and poultry by 3.7 percent, oil and fats by 0.9 percent, cereals and bread by 0.5 percent, and milk and white cheese by 0.5 percent.

On the other hand, prices of ready-made garments fell by 1.1 percent, and transportation service prices went down by 0.4 percent in March, according to CAPMAS.

The announced inflation figures remain within the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) target range of 9 percent (±3 percent).

Meanwhile, CBE inflation calculations – announced on Thursday – showed that the annual headline inflation rate remained stable at 4.5 percent in March 2021.

Yet, monthly headline inflation increased to 0.5 percent in March 2021, up from 0.4 percent in the same month of 2020, according to the CBE.

Accordingly, the annual headline inflation rate rose to 3.7 percent in March 2021, up from 3.6 percent in February 2021.

According to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) projections for the Egyptian economy, announced in April, the country’s real GDP growth is expected to deaccelerate to 2.5 percent in 2021, down from 3.6 percent in 2020, before rebounding by around the double to reach 5.7 percent in 2022.

Egypt’s inflation rate is projected to decline to 4.8 percent in 2021, down from 5.7 percent in 2020, before soaring to 7.2 percent in 2022, according to the IMF.

Moreover, the IMF said that the country’s current account balance is expected to continue to see negative performance estimated at -4 percent in 2021 and 2022, compared to -3.1 percent in 2020.

Egypt is also expected to experience an increase in the unemployment rate to reach 9.8 percent and 9.4 percent in 2021 and 2020, respectively, up from 8.3 percent in 2020, according to the IMF.