AA / Cairo
Annual inflation growth in Egypt accelerated to 21.9% last December from 19.2% the previous November.
This is what emerges from a press release published Tuesday by the Central Agency for Mobilization and Statistics in Egypt, at a time when the country is suffering from successive declines in the exchange rate of the pound once morest the dollar.
The Egyptian Statistics Authority said annual inflation rose to 21.9% in December from 19.2% the previous month, while monthly inflation rose 2.1%.
On a yearly basis, price inflation for the Food and Beverages group increased by 37.9% year-on-year, due to increases in grain prices of 58.3% and meat and poultry 35.5%.
Prices in the textile and footwear group also increased by 15.6%, while prices in the health care group jumped 13.6% in December on an annual basis and those in the transport group by 17, 3%.
Last week, the Egyptian pound fell to historic lows once morest the dollar (above 27 pounds) as the country’s government and central bank sought channels to increase currency abundance and withdraw domestic liquidity from markets.
The move in the exchange rate of the pound once morest the dollar recorded last week is the third in less than a year.
Moving the pound’s exchange rate to the Egyptian market was one of the key demands of the International Monetary Fund under a $3 billion loan program with Egypt that was approved on Dec. 16.
*Translated from Arabic by Malèk Jomni
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