Monday 10 January 2011

FT Tilt - A square meal and a smoke in Egypt keep getting pricier

New figures from CAPMAS, the Egyptian national statistics agency, show 2010 ending with an inflationary bang (Arabic), with food prices in December up by 16 per cent on the previous year.

The most basic staples were hardest hit, with cereals, bread and rice up by 21.5 per cent for the year, and vegetables up a hair raising 13.9 per cent in a single month. Overall, Egyptian CPI was up 10.3 per cent for the year.

Egypt's food woes are part of a bigger picture where, with less fanfare, food prices have now risen to higher levels than during the great food panic of 2008, when riots broke out across the developing world as food inflation soared. Globally, the UN says food is more expensive todaythan at any point since it began tracking prices in 1990.


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