(Recast) Economic reform drive brings down Egypt's consumer price inflation

CAIRO, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's official statistics agency said Wednesday that the country's annual urban consumer price inflation dropped to 21.9 percent in December from 26 percent the previous month.

Egyptian Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said in a statement that the drop in the rate of urban monthly consumer price inflation in December (0.2 percent) was a first since November 2015.

After the CAPMAS announcement, Egyptian Finance Minister Amr al-Garhy said in an official press release that he expects the inflation rate to drop below 20 percent by the end of January and retreat to 10-12 percent by the end of 2018.

Egypt has been suffering economic slowdown over the past few years due to political turmoil and relevant security challenges, which led the country in 2016 to fully float the exchange rate of its local currency to contain shortage of the U.S. dollar reserves and embark on a strict three-year economic reform program including fuel and energy subsidy cuts and higher taxes.

Despite causing price hikes and high inflation rates, the floatation of the Egyptian pound encouraged the International Monetary Fund to support Egypt's economic reform plan by a 12-billion-dollar loan, half of which has already been delivered to the North African country.

Since the government started to implement the program, inflation rates have been notably going down. Enditem