Core inflation rates do not include highly volatile prices and categories such as food
Egypt’s core annual inflation rate recorded 3.7 percent in March 2021, compared to February’s 3.6 percent, states the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).
The announcement comes hours after the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) release of the annual consumer price inflation at 4.8 percent.
Core inflation rates do not include highly volatile prices and categories such as food.
The Consumer Price Index saw a monthly rate of 0.5 percent in March, compared to 0.4 percent for the same month last year, and to 0.3 percent in February 2021, the statement added.
Inflation remains within the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) target range of 9 percent, plus or minus 3 percentage points, despite the precautionary measures taken aiming to curb the spread of coronavirus that are expected to raise the rate of inflation.
On a monthly basis, inflation recorded 110.9 points in March 2021, compared to 110.3 points in February 2021, marking an increase of 0.6 percent, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said.
CAPMAS attributed the slight increase in inflation to the hike in prices of some commodities during the month, as the fruits group by 7.1 percent, meat and pourtly group by 3.7 percent, oil and fats group by 0.9 percent, cereals and bread by 0.5 percent, in addition to the increase in the group of milk and white cheese by 0.5 percent.
The sustainable development plan for 2020/2021 expected the inflation rate to increase to 9.8 percent if coronavirus crisis continued until December 2020.
The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) decided Thursday, March 18, to keep the overnight deposit rate, overnight lending rate, and the rate of the main operation unchanged at 8.25 percent, 9.25 percent, and 8.75 percent, respectively. Moreover, the discount rate was also kept at 8.75 percent.
Egypt's 2020/2021 draft budget aims to reduce public debt of GDP to 82.7 percent by end of June 2021, up from earlier target of 82.5 percent by the end of June 2020 and to 77.5 percent by the end of June 2022.
