CAIRO, March 9 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's annual inflation nationwide reached 32.9 percent in February 2023, Egypt's official statistics agency said in a report on Thursday.
This is the highest inflation rate since the end of 2017, according to local media estimates.
The prices of food and beverage went up by 61.5 percent, transportation, by 19.4 percent, healthcare, by 16.8 percent, and clothes and shoes, by 18.9 percent, said the report issued by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics.
Meanwhile, the prices of various commodities and services climbed by 24.7 percent, it added.
The Egyptian pound has lost about half of its value since March 2022, when the Central Bank of Egypt started to order rounds of devaluations amid a shortage of foreign currency, particularly the U.S. dollar, necessary for imports. ■