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Egypt

Egypt: Safety Nets Alert Platform (SNAP) Country Dashboard - March 2018

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HIGHLIGHTS (MARKET STRESS)

Household economic access to food is highly challenged by the historic increase in inflation rates after the implementation of the recent set of reforms recommended by the IMF which entered into effect from November 2016. When compared to pre-devaluation indices, Egyptian economy and people’s purchasing power still have a long way to recovery. The predevaluation inflation in consumer prices was 10% in Jan 2016 compared to 17.1% in Jan 2018. Similarly, the food basket in March 2016 costed EGP 140, compared to the current cost as of March 2018 of EGP 212. In the last twelve months food prices have been generally stable.

The food basked remained stable in the past four months, even though a few commodities changed in price. The most significant decrease was in the price of tomatoes and potatoes, while the only significant increase in price was for onions. The inflation rate decreased to 13.3%. Similarly, food inflation decreased to 11.9%. A slight devaluation of the Egyptian pound is expected for April and May, ahead of Ramadan.