CAIRO: The price of cereals and bread in Egypt has leapt by nearly 50 percent over the past 12 months, official figures showed on Saturday as the Arab world s most populous nation faced a wave of protests.
In the year to March, the price of both cereals and bread rose by 48.1 percent, the director of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, General Abu Bakr Al-Gendi, told AFP.
The price of cooking oil rose by 45.2 percent while foodstuffs as a whole rose by an average of 23.5 percent, he added.
The rise in food prices sharply exceeded the general inflation rate for the 12-month period which stood at 15.8 percent.
Egypt has been rocked by a wave of protests against skyrocketing prices in recent weeks, particularly in the Nile Delta industrial centre of Mahalla El-Kobra, which saw two days of deadly riots. -AFP
