CAIRO: Egypt's annual urban consumer price inflation plunged to 9.4pc in June from 14.1pc in May, official statistics agency CAPMAS said on Wednesday, a significantly bigger drop than analysts had expected and its lowest since March 2016.
Analysts said the deceleration was partly caused by last year's high base effect and by lower vegetable prices, which are often a key contributor to high inflation.
"That's a bigger-than-expected drop," said Allen Sandeep, head of research at Naeem Brokerage. "Good news for the markets, as this could raise hopes for a rate cut tomorrow."
The central bank said core inflation, which strips out volatile items such as food, had also slowed, to 6.4pc in June from 7.8pc in May.
The monetary policy committee of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) will meet on Thursday. It held rates steady at its last two meetings, in May and March, after a surprise cut in February.
Of 15 contributors to a Reuters poll, Naeem was the only one to predict a cut on Thursday.
The bank's overnight deposit rate is 15.75pc and the overnight lending rate 16.75pc.
"I don't think the CBE will rush into cuts as it predates the rollout of fuel subsidy cuts," said Maya Senussi, senior economist for the Middle East at Oxford Economics.
Urban inflation fell month-on-month in June by 0.8pc after rising by 1.1pc in May, the statistics showed. The year-on-year figure was the first single-digit inflation since March 2016, when it was at 9pc.
"It's due, in part, to last year's high rates and also to some falling vegetable prices," said Angus Blair, chairman of business and economic forecasting think-tank Signet.
Vegetable prices, which have a 6.9pc weighting in the basket of goods, rose 17.6pc year-on-year in June, but fell 10pc compared to May, CAPMAS said. Vegetable prices rose 35.8pc month-on-month in May.
SUBSIDY CUTS
Egypt raised fuel prices last week by 16pc to 30pc as part of an economic reform programme backed by the International Monetary Fund that saw inflation rise to a high of 33pc in 2017.
"June inflation numbers represent the phasing out of all residuals/remnants of the subsidy cuts that were implemented in 2018," Naeem said in a research note.
Egypt raised energy prices in June 2018 and told the IMF it would raise them again by June 15 this year. It has not given a reason for the delay.
Analysts said inflation in July and August was likely to return to double digits, especially as the effects of the fuel price hikes are felt.
While economists had predicted a softer deceleration in inflation in June, most continued to predict the bank would hold rates until the fuel price impact is tested.
Last week's fuel price increases were the latest subsidy cuts tied to the IMF loan that have financially strained Egyptians, millions of whom live under the poverty line.
Other reforms under the deal included devaluing the Egyptian pound by half and introducing a value-added tax.
"The central bank will wait for the second-round effects of the subsidy cuts and for the spillover from higher wages and pensions to materialise," said Dina Rofael, senior economist at Sigma Capital.
She predicted the bank would cut rates by 100 to 200 basis points in the fourth quarter of this year or early 2020.
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