Inflation has cooled steadily in recent months after an increase in fuel, electricity and transportation prices earlier this year had sent the rate up to a high of 17.7 percent in October.

Egypt has implemented a series of tough austerity measures to help meet the terms of a $12 billion IMF loan programme it signed in late 2016.

(Reporting by Nadine Awadalla; Editing by Sunil Nair)