Egypt’s inflation accelerated to another record high, with a new surge in food costs heaping more pressure on a country struggling with a debilitating foreign-currency crunch, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices in urban parts of the country rose an annual 36.5% in July, up from 35.7% the previous month, according to figures released Thursday by the state-run CAPMAS statistics agency. On a monthly basis, inflation was 1.9%, compared with 2.1% in June. The headline inflation rate’s now further beyond the level reached in the aftermath of Egypt’s 2016 currency crisis. It came in spite of a favorable base effect and was driven by a 68.4% increase in food and beverage costs, the largest single component of the inflation basket. Inflation is now on track to stay above 30% for the rest of this year before a possibly “sharp decline” through 2024, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
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