Egypt's annual urban consumer price inflation rate increased to 5.9% in April from 5.1% in March, the official statistics agency CAPMAS said on Sunday, a rate higher than analysts had expected on the back of rising food prices.

While the country of 100 million people has not witnessed the panic buying seen in some European states as the coronavirus pandemic spread, demand surged in April ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"We expected a surge in Ramadan but the rate of increase is higher than we had anticipated. In the two weeks preceding the holy month, there was a lot of buying activity and a demand push across the board. We could possibly see some easing in May,"

said Allen Sandeep, head of research at Naeem Brokerage, adding that the increase was still not a cause for concern.

Month-on-month urban inflation accelerated to 1.3% compared with 0.6% in March, CAPMAS said.

Core inflation, which strips out volatile goods such as food, also accelerated to 2.54% year-on-year in April, from 1.89% in March, the central bank said.