Egypt's annual headline inflation in urban areas accelerated to reach 4.5 percent in February, up from 4.3 percent recorded in January, the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) announced on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Egypt's annual headline inflation rate stood at 4.9 percent in February, the same level recorded in February 2020, according to CAPMAS. Additionally, Egypt's headline monthly inflation saw a slight increase of 0.1 percent in February compared to January level. Accordingly, Egypt's inflation rates remain within the inflation target set by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) by 7 seven percent (+/-2 percent) through 2022. CAPMAS attributed the increase in the annual inflation to the rise in consumer prices of some goods by 0.2 percent, while prices of food and beverages during February was stable. In February, CAPMAS announced that Egypt's annual headline inflation rate declined in January to 4.8 percent, down from 6.8 percent in the same month of 2020, the lowest since October, and monthly headline inflation also decreased in January by 0.4 percent compared to December. Egypt is expected to witness a notable increase in its inflation rates in March ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, which is due to be in April. Meanwhile, Egypt's monthly headline inflation, computed by the CBE and announced on Wednesday, recorded 0.3 percent in February 2021 compared to 0.2 percent in the same month of the previous year and to 0.5 percent in January 2021. As a result, the annual headline inflation rate remained stable at 3.6 percent in February 2021, according to CBE calculations. The CBE's Monetary Policy Committee is expected to review the key interest rates in its scheduled meeting on 18 March in light of the latest inflation rates, which pave the way for keeping the interest rates unchanged. Egypt's inflation rate is expected to reach 6.4 percent by the end of the third quarter of FY2020/2021 — which ends in March, according to Trading Economics (TE) global macro models and analysts' expectations. Looking forward, TE projected Egypt's inflation rate to stand at 7 percent in 12 months time, and to trend around 6.8 percent in 2022 and 6.5 percent in 2023, over the long term.
