(English) Egypt’s annual inflation dropped in February to its lowest in more than a year, paving the way for a potential interest rate cut later this month.
Inflation climbed after the country floated its currency in Nov 2016. It reached a record high in July on the back of energy subsidy cuts, but has gradually eased since.
Annual urban consumer price inflation fell to 14.4 percent in February from 17.1 percent in January, the official statistics agency CAPMAS said.
Core inflation, which strips out volatile items like food, fell to 11.88 percent from 14.35 percent, central bank data showed.
“The Central Bank of Egypt is ahead of target on the year-end inflation rate. The drop supports another one percent cut in (interest rates at) the next monetary policy meeting,” said the head of research at Pharos Securities Brokerage, Radwa El-Swaify.
Other economists said they also expected a cut at the March 29 meeting.
The central bank raised key interest rates by 7 percentage points after it floated the currency. It cut them by one point last month.
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