Central Bank of Egypt says food major driver of December 2022’s inflation of 21.3%

Egypt’s Annual headline urban inflation increased to 21.3% in December 2022 from 18.7% in November 2022. The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said that December’s 2022 inflation figure continued to be impacted by supply shocks caused by the elevated levels of international commodity prices, the exchange rate depreciation since March 2022 as well as higher broad money growth.

It said in a report that the increase in annual headline inflation was broad-based across all categories, but food inflation was more pronounced. Annual food inflation increased to 37.2% in December 2022 from 29.9% in November 2022. Similarly, annual non-food inflation increased to 14.3% in December 2022 from 13.8% in November 2022.

Annual headline urban inflation recorded an average of 13.9% in 2022 compared to an average of 5.2% in 2021.

Monthly headline urban inflation recorded 2.1% in December 2022 compared to negative 0.1% in December 2021, however, it decelerated slightly from 2.3% in November 2022.

Monthly headline urban inflation in December 2022 was mainly driven by a strong contribution from core food items.