The Cabinet declared Monday that month-on-month inflation in urban areas dropped for the first time in six months in spite of the continuing repercussions of the Russia-Ukraine War, attributing this to not suspending under-progress mega national projects and taking measures aimed at expanding the share of the private sector in the economy.

The Cabinet clarified that the decline in the prices of fruits and vegetables is the main cause of the drop in June 2022. For the first time since December 2021, a negative inflation occurred recording -0.1 percent.

The rate in the previous months was 1.1 percent in May, 3.3 percent in April, 2.2 percent in March, 1.6 percent in February, and 0.9 percent in January. Month-on-month inflation was relatively high in July 2021 as it was 0.9 percent.

Yet, it had fallen to 0.1 percent in the following month before steadily going up to 1.1 percent in September, and 1.5 percent in October. Nevertheless, decline happened shortly in November and December for inflation to become 0.1 percent and -0.1 percent, respectively.

The report released by the government highlighted that the prices of food and beverage decreased by 1.8 percent in June compared to May. The breakdown is a decline of 16.7 percent and 14 percent that occurred in the prices of vegetables and fruits, respectively.

That is in addition to a rise in the prices of other food products, and that is worth 1.2 percent in milk, cheese, eggs, and sugar; 1.6 percent in grains and bread; 1.7 percent in oils, butter, and ghee; 1.8 percent in red meat and pourtly; two percent in bottled water, fizzy drinks, and juices; 2.2 percent in fish and seafood; and 2.3 percent in coffee, tea, and cocoa.

As for the year-on-year inflation in 2022, it spiked to 7.3 percent in January, 8.8 percent in February, 10.5 percent in March, 13.1 percent in April, 13.5 percent in May, and 13.2 percent in June.

With regard to 2021, the figures were 4.3 percent in January, 4.5 percent in both February and March, 4.1 percent in April, 4.8 percent in May, 4.9 percent in June; 5.4 percent in July; 5.7 percent in August; 6.6 percent in September, 6.3 percent in October, 5.6 percent in November, and 5.9 percent in December