Egypt’s annual inflation rate dropped to 11.4% in May, down from 13.1% in April, a larger fall than the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had predicted, Invest-Gate reports.

The inflation rate in May increased by 0.3% compared to the previous month, reaching 274.7 points from 273.9 points, according to the monthly bulletin released by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) on Sunday, June 10.

The prices of food and drink surged by 0.1% last month compared to April 2018, and annually the prices jumped by 8.8% from the same month in 2017, CAPMAS notes.

Meanwhile, the monthly core CPI inflation, computed by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), recorded 1.5% in May compared to 1.1% last April; whilst the annual core inflation rate declined to 11.1% in May from 11.6% in the previous month.

In a report issued in January, the IMF expected the inflation rate to drop to nearly 12% by June 2018 and to less than 10% in 2019, after having risen to 35% in July 2017 due to the flotation of the Egyptian pound, hence raising energy prices and the imposition of value-added tax (VAT).