Egypt’s annual headline inflation rate increased to 33.9% this month up from 12.1% in March last year, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) on Monday.

The annual urban consumer inflation rate in March increased to 32.7% year-on-year up from 31.9% in February.

The monthly urban inflation rate, however, slowed to 2.7% in March from 6.5% in February and 4.7% in January.

CAPMAS attributed the main reason for this increase is due to the increase in prices of food prices linked to Ramadan-related high seasonal demand. The hike in Egypt’s inflation rate was also caused by the currency devaluation, raw material and foreign currency shortage, and delays in imports.

Since last year, prices in the food and beverages sector increased by 62.7%, as a result of the increase in the prices of the cereals and bread group by 69.6%, the increase in the prices of the meat and poultry group by 91.5%, the increase in the prices of the fish and seafood group by 82.2% and the increase in the prices of the dairy and eggs group by 70.5%.