Egypt’s annual inflation headline declines to its lowest since October reaching 5.4 % in December, down from 5.7% in November, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) announced on January 10, according to Ahram-Online.

In November, CAPMAS announced that the annual inflation rate rose to 6.3 %, up from 2.7 %in November 2019.

Vegetable prices have dropped by 10.1%; seafood by 0.6%; meat and poultry by 0.2%; milk, cheese, eggs by 0.1 %, and ready-made garments fell by 0.6%.

On the other hand, a number of other products’ prices saw a rise in December, including fruits by 3.8%; oil and fats by 0.5 %; grains and bread by 0.2 %and transport services by 0.7%.

Meanwhile, monthly inflation in urban areas witnessed a slowdown by 0.4%, reaching its lowest level in 18 months, after having expanded by 0.8 %in November.

Following their last meeting in 2020 to review the key interest rates, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced in December that it had reset its inflation target to be at 7 %(±2%points) on average during the fourth quarter of Q4 2022, down from 9 % (±3 %points) on average that was targeted for the same quarter, explaining that this action came as the CBE continues to support macroeconomic stability.

According to CBE, Egypt’s real GDP growth increased to 0.7 %during the third quarter of Q3 2020, up from -1.7 % during the second quarter of 2020, while growth registered a preliminary figure of 3.6 %in FY 2019/2020 compared to the 5.6 %a year earlier.

Furthermore, the unemployment rate was recorded at 7.3 %in the third quarter of 2020, the lowest rate on record, down from 9.6 %in the second quarter of 2020, according to CAPMAS.