RIYADH: Egypt’s Consumer Price Index jumped to 13.1 percent year-on-year in April to its highest since June 2019, according to data released by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, also known as CAPMAS. The CPI exceeded analysts" expectations showcasing a 1.5 percentage point error to the anticipated 11.8 percent forecast by a Bloomberg poll. This has been the highest marginal error over the past 8 months. The CAPMAS report also showed a net monthly change of 2.6 percentage points in April — 13.1 percent versus 10.5 percent, the greatest change since the 3.5 percentage points recorded in December 2019. The price index for food and beverages surged to 26 percent year-on-year from 19.7 percent in March, also a hike of 7.6 percent month-on-month from a 2.1 percent increase in March. The same index for rural Egypt underwent an even higher change at 32.2 percent year-on-year and 8.6 percent month-on-month. The month-on-month change in the urban general CPI quickened to 3.3 percent from a 2.2 percent month-on-month increase in the previous month of March. Looking at the breakdown of annual changes in the urban CPI, Egypt sustained a 30.1 percent increase in culture and recreation, followed by 13 percent and 12.7 percent rise in hospitality and education respectively, 7.5 percent hike in clothing and footwear, 6.9 percent increase in transport, and 6.0 percent increase in housing and electricity. As for the month-on-month change, Egypt witnessed a 1.8-percent increase in culture and recreation , 2.1 percent hospitality, 4 percent increase in clothing and footwear, 1.7 percent increase in transport, and 0.9 percent increase in housing and electricity. The price index for education remained unchanged from March.