CAIRO: Egypt’s annual urban consumer price inflation rate dropped more than expected to 25.5% in November, its lowest since December 2022, data from statistics agency CAPMAS showed on Tuesday.

Inflation began climbing precipitously in early 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which prompted foreign investors to withdraw billions of dollars from Egyptian treasury markets.

Headline inflation climbed to a record high of 38.0% in September 2023. By October 2024 it had fallen to 26.5%.

The median forecast of 15 analysts in a Reuters poll had been for annual inflation to inch down to 26.4% last month.

On a monthly basis, headline inflation rose by 0.5% in November, down from 1.1% in October, CAPMAS data showed.

Saudi Arabia’s inflation rate edges up to 1.9% in October

Food prices dropped by 2.8% on the month compared with 1.1% in October to stand 23.3% higher than they were a year earlier.

Inflation has been fuelled largely by an expansion of the money supply.

Egypt’s M2 money supply grew by 29.54% year-on-year in October, central bank data showed.