Egypt's urban consumer inflation drops to 9%

The annual urban consumer inflation in Egypt dropped to 9 percent in March from the February figure of 9.1 percent, official figures have revealed.

The March figure represents a third consecutive drop in inflation in the north African country which has struggled to keep rampant inflation in check.

Core inflation, which excludes items such as fruit and vegetables however jumped to 8.4 percent year-on-year in March, up from the 7.5 percent recorded in February.

#Egypt's urban #inflation falls in March for third consecutive month https://t.co/Q9BT1YNL1s

— Aswat Masriya_En (@AswatMasriya_En) April 10, 2016

Urban inflation began to decline after Egypt’s Central Bank raised its interest rates by 50 basis points in December, citing inflationary pressure.

The government has taken a series of measures to keep the price of basic goods from rising. This includes using army trucks to distribute subsidised food items to the poor and identifying key goods to monitor for price rises reports Reuters.

Last month, Egypt’s Central Bank devalued the pound, a move the government had been reluctant to make out of fear that would spark inflation.

The Central Bank said it would move to a more flexible exchange rate regime, in an effort to rebalance markets and ease a foreign exchange shortage that had stifled business activity and affected confidence.

_Reuters _