CAIRO: Egypt’s annual urban consumer price inflation rate dropped to 35.8 percent in October from a record high of 38 percent in September, data from the country’s statistics agency CAPMAS showed on Saturday, coming in lower than analysts had expected. The median forecast of 19 analysts polled by Reuters had shown inflation slipping to 37.1 percent. Month on month, price rises slowed to 1 percent in October from 2 percent in September. Inflation had accelerated every month since June, when it reached 35.7 percent, topping the previous high of 32.95 percent in July 2017. Food and beverage prices rose by 1.5 percent month on month and an annual 71.3 percent, CAPMAS said. Meanwhile, Egypt’s central bank said on Monday it sold $1.6 billion in one-year dollar-denominated Treasury bills with an average yield of 4.6 percent. The auction will be settled on Tuesday.