CAIRO: Egypt’s annual inflation rate hit 12.1 percent in March, official figures showed Sunday, as foreign reserves declined by $4 billion during the same month, according to the central bank.

“The annual headline inflation rate recorded 12.1 percent for March 2022, compared to 4.8 percent for the same month last year,” the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) said in a statement.

The latest figure marks an increase of more than two percent compared to the 10 percent inflation rate recorded in February — already at a near three-year high.

This comes less than three weeks after the Egyptian pound depreciated against the dollar, losing about 17 percent of its value in one day. The Arab world’s most populous country has been struck by mounting economic pressures since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February caused global commodity price to shoot up.