Egypt’s annual urban consumer price inflation climbed for a second month in September, rising to 26.4% from 26.2% in August, data from the country’s statistics agency CAPMAS showed on Wednesday.

According to Reuters, month-on-month, prices rose by 2.1%, unchanged from a similar 2.1% increase in August. Food prices rose by 2.6% compared with 1.8% in August. September food prices were 27.7% higher than they were a year earlier.

Recent inflation was driven in part by fuel hikes of 10-15% near the end of July, a 25-33% jump in metro ticket prices at the beginning of August and a 21-31% increase in electricity tariffs in August and September.

Inflation had been declining gradually from a record high in September 2023 of 38.0%, turning the central bank’s real overnight borrowing rate, at 27.25%, positive in July for the first time since January 2022.

A poll of 19 analysts had forecast urban inflation would ease to 26.0% in September.

Egypt’s core inflation, which strips out volatile items such as fuel and some types of food, slowed to an annual 25.0% from 25.1% in August, separate central bank data showed.

Five of the analysts polled by Reuters had expected core inflation to slip to a median 24.8%.

Egypt has tightened monetary policy under an $8 billion International Monetary Fund financial support package signed in March which also required it to increase many domestic prices and devalue its currency.