Egypt’s annual urban consumer price inflation slowed further in April to 32.5 percent on a year-on-year basis, down from 33.3 percent in March, according to data from the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) released on Thursday.
Prices for bread, oils, meat, and poultry declined on an annual basis, according to the data. On a monthly basis, consumer price growth accelerated to 1.1 percent last month from one percent in March.
CAPMAS attributed the rise in inflation figures on a monthly basis to an 8.6 percent increase in the prices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco and a 5.5 percent increase in clothing.
In an effort to alleviate the burden on middle-and low-income households affected by rising inflation and the erosion of the local currency’s value, the Egyptian government allocated LE596 billion for the subsidy system in the upcoming 2024/2025 budget, the Asharq Business website reported.
The government’s subsidy allocations include 134 billion pounds for food supplies, over LE147 billion for petroleum products, and LE40 billion for the “Takaful and Karama” program.
Since the beginning of the year, Egyptians have faced an increase in metro ticket prices, the most popular mode of transportation in the capital, Cairo, and its suburbs, home to over 20 million people.
This was followed by announcements of price hikes for landline internet and mobile phone services, electricity, and building materials, particularly cement and iron.
In response to rising prices in the Egyptian market, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi issued a decree in February raising the minimum wage by 50 percent to LE6,000 per month, part of the largest package of measures to alleviate the living burdens on citizens worth LE180 billion, according to Asharq Business.
