CAIRO, June 10 (Xinhua) — Egypt’s annual headline inflation rose to 33.7 percent in May, up from 15.3 percent in the same period of 2022, the country’s official statistics agency reported on Saturday.

Urban inflation increased by 2.7 percent in May month on month, among the highest records, said a report by the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS).

The high inflation in May was mainly driven by a rise in food prices, which grew by 58.9 percent year-on-year, health care costs, which increased by 18 percent year-on-year, and hotel and restaurant prices, which rose by 48.8 percent compared to the same period last year, the report explained.

Also on Saturday, Egypt’s Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade launched a national project for establishing strategic warehouses of food commodities in the northeastern Suez Canal city, upon instructions of President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi to secure strategic storage of basic commodities amid global supply chains constraints and dollar shortage in Egypt.

Egypt’s surging inflation rate is attributed to a recurrent devaluation of currency since March 2022, fueling foreign currency shortage and delays in receiving imports.

In December 2022, Egypt secured a 3-billion-dollar financial support package from the International Monetary Fund which required a follow-up review from the financing body for the liberation of local currency.