CAIRO (Reuters) – Inflation in Egypt is forecast to have slid to 23.0% in January, helped by a supportive base effect, according to a poll released on Thursday.
The median forecast of 17 analysts polled by Reuters was for annual urban consumer inflation to have fallen to 23.0% from 24.1% in December. The data was collected from Feb. 3-6.
“We expect urban inflation to decelerate to 22.8% y-o-y in January, enhanced by the base year effect, reflecting the relative stability in food prices and pharmaceuticals, despite fluctuations in building material prices,” Heba Monir of HC Securities said.
Inflation declined in November and December after having rebounded in August, September and October. It remains well below an all-time peak of 38% hit in September 2023.
Price rises have been fuelled in part by rapid growth in the money supply. M2 money supply expanded by an all-time high of 31.07% in 2024, central bank data showed.
The government statistics agency CAPMAS is due to release inflation figures on Monday morning.
Six of the analysts predicted that core inflation would decrease in January to 21.8% from 23.2% in December.
(Polling by Anant Chandak and Veronica Khongwir; writing by Patrick Werr; editing by Mark Heinrich)
