Corrected – Expectations of an acceleration of inflation in Egypt in January by Reuters

(To correct the date for the next meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank to March 30 instead of February 2 in the seventh paragraph)

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s general inflation rate is expected to have continued to rise in January, after jumping to a five-year high in December, a Reuters poll showed on Tuesday, with prices continuing to rise after the pound’s depreciation. Several times over the past ten months.

The median forecast of 14 analysts showed annual inflation could have reached 23.75 percent in January, up from 21.3 percent in December, which was the highest since December 2017.

“Our monitoring of domestic prices shows that prices continued to rise steadily in January for most basic commodities, including edible oils, sugar, meat and poultry,” said Goldman Sachs, which expected inflation to reach 23.8 percent.

He added in a note that a possible increase of up to 10 percent in fuel prices at a quarterly meeting of the government fuel pricing committee could reduce the pace of inflation reduction.

The central bank has allowed the Egyptian pound to decline about 50 percent since March, and the currency witnessed particularly large declines in March, late October and early January.

Five analysts also expected core inflation to rise to 26.6 percent from 24.4 percent in December.

A significant rise in inflation would put pressure on the Central Bank of Egypt’s Monetary Policy Committee to raise interest rates at its next meeting on March 30.

At its most recent meeting on Feb. 2, the committee kept overnight interest rates unchanged, saying it believed an 800 basis point rate hike over the past year would counteract inflationary pressures.

The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics is scheduled to announce inflation data on Thursday morning.

(Prepared by Muhammad Ali Farag for the Arabic Bulletin – Edited by Mahmoud Abdel-Gawad)