12 October 2026
Egypt's inflation rate stood at 13.9 per cent in September, according to data from the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics.
The agency, known as CAPMAS, is Egypt's official statistics body and the source every report cites for the country's price numbers.
Higher energy costs were named as a reason the rate stayed elevated.
The Central Bank of Egypt watches this reading closely because its policy rate decisions are set against an inflation target.
Alongside the CAPMAS figure, core inflation is published separately by the Central Bank of Egypt, and in the same month it eased to 14.1 per cent.
Core inflation strips out the most volatile items, chiefly fresh food and regulated prices, so it reads differently from the headline rate.
The pairing of a CAPMAS headline rate with a central bank core rate is the standing way Egypt's price data are reported.
Inflation rate for September:
13.9 per cent
Core inflation, same month:
14.1 per cent
Source of the headline figure:
CAPMAS
Publisher of core inflation:
Central Bank of Egypt
Why it matters for exams: The durable facts are that Egypt's official price statistics come from the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics, or CAPMAS, which put the September rate at 13.9 per cent, while core inflation is a separate Central Bank of Egypt measure that eased to 14.1 per cent.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
CAPMAS Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics — Egypt's official statistics agency for price and population data.
Core inflation Inflation measured after leaving out the most volatile items — In Egypt it is published by the Central Bank of Egypt.
2 November 2026
Egypt has signed a $1 billion financing agreement with the World Bank.
Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty signed it for Egypt.
The deal is the second of three concessional development policy operations, and the bank's board had approved it in May.
It includes a $200 million British credit guarantee.
Egypt has to deliver agreed changes before the money flows: in how state-owned firms are run, how competition is policed, how tax is collected, and what the government pays to borrow.
A development policy operation is budget support: the money goes to the treasury once agreed reforms are carried out, rather than to a single project.
For Egypt the signing is foreign funding for an economy under pressure from regional war, a weakening currency and rising prices.
Amount:
$1 billion
British credit guarantee:
$200 million
Signed for Egypt by:
Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty
Place in the series:
Second of three concessional development policy operations
Why it matters for exams: The durable facts are the lender and the instrument: a $1 billion World Bank development policy operation for Egypt, carrying a $200 million British credit guarantee, signed by Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
DPF Development Policy Financing — World Bank budget support released when agreed reforms are carried out.
26 October 2026
Egypt's parliament has authorised President Abdel Fattah El Sisi to take the necessary measures, in coordination with Riyadh, to defend Saudi Arabia.
The mandate covers the kingdom's territory, sovereignty and holy sites against any external aggression.
The legal basis is Article 152 of the constitution, which requires two-thirds backing to send the army on a combat mission abroad.
In a house of 596 members that threshold works out to 398 MPs, and the House of Representatives approved the motion with a two-thirds majority in favour.
The step followed a meeting of the National Defence Council, which President El Sisi chairs, on October 18; the council promised the kingdom whatever help was needed and possible, without saying what kind, how much, or for how long.
Assem El Gazzar, deputy speaker and head of the National Front Party, was among those who spoke for the mandate.
Approval does not mean troops deploy immediately, and no formal Saudi request had been announced.
Constitutional article:
Article 152
Majority required:
two-thirds
Strength of the house:
596
Two-thirds threshold:
398 MPs
Why it matters for exams: The durable fact is Article 152 of Egypt's Constitution: the President is supreme commander of the armed forces but must consult the National Defence Council and win the approval of the House of Representatives, by a two-thirds majority, before sending troops abroad on a combat mission.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Article 152 Article 152 of the Constitution of Egypt — It makes the President supreme commander of the armed forces and sets the conditions for sending troops abroad.
House of Representatives Majlis al-Nuwab, the lower house of Egypt's parliament — The chamber whose approval Article 152 requires.
15 September 2026
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman came to Cairo for talks with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
El-Sisi received him at Cairo International Airport, and the arrival was reported by the Saudi Press Agency.
The Egyptian presidency said the two sides would look at widening ties between the two countries across a range of fields, together with regional and international questions.
Shipping featured heavily, because both governments want traffic through the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb strait to move without being attacked.
That strait is the southern gateway to the Red Sea, and it is the route by which ships reach the Suez Canal from the Indian Ocean side.
Egypt treats the question as a national one: when traffic avoids Bab al-Mandeb, the Suez Canal loses the tolls that are one of its main sources of foreign currency.
Yemen, Sudan and Palestine were also on the agenda, and no agreement was signed at the meeting.
The previous visit by the Crown Prince to Cairo had been in October 2024.
Visitor and office:
Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia
Host:
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
Venue:
Cairo
Shipping lane at issue:
Bab al-Mandeb strait, Red Sea
Why it matters for exams: The durable facts are the places and the office: Mohammed bin Salman is Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince, the talks were held in Cairo with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and the shipping lane at issue is the Bab al-Mandeb strait at the southern end of the Red Sea, the approach used by vessels bound for the Suez Canal.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Bab al-Mandeb The strait between the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa — It is the southern entrance to the Red Sea on the way to the Suez Canal.
SPA Saudi Press Agency — Saudi Arabia's state news agency, which reported the arrival.
Background
Egypt's World Bank operation carries a social protection pillar, and that pillar rests on two standing Egyptian programmes.
The first is Takaful and Karama, Egypt's conditional and unconditional cash transfer scheme for poor households.
The second is the Universal Health Insurance System, the scheme meant to bring the whole population under health cover.
Under the World Bank operation, Takaful and Karama beneficiaries are automatically enrolled in the Universal Health Insurance System.
Automatic enrolment matters because it removes a separate application step for the households least able to complete one.
This is how two existing schemes are linked rather than a new scheme being created.
For exam purposes Takaful and Karama is the cash transfer and the Universal Health Insurance System is the health cover; the reform joins them.
Cash transfer scheme:
Takaful and Karama
Health scheme:
Universal Health Insurance System
Mode of linkage:
Automatic enrollment
Why it matters for exams: The standing facts are the two Egyptian scheme names: Takaful and Karama as the cash transfer programme, and the Universal Health Insurance System as the health cover into which its beneficiaries are automatically enrolled.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Takaful and Karama Egypt's cash transfer programme for poor households — Its beneficiaries are the group auto-enrolled in health cover.
UHIS Universal Health Insurance System — Egypt's scheme to bring the whole population under health cover.
Background
Egypt's parliament has authorised the President to defend Saudi Arabia, and the vote rests on a standing rule of the constitution.
Article 152 is the provision that governs sending the Egyptian army on a combat mission abroad.
It does not leave that decision to the head of state alone.
Two-thirds backing of the House of Representatives is required, which in a house of 596 members means 398 MPs.
Alongside the chamber there is a standing defence body, the National Defence Council, and the President of Egypt chairs it.
That council is where support of this kind is first weighed, as it was on October 18 before the parliamentary vote.
The effect of Article 152 is that the use of Egyptian force outside the country is shared between the presidency, that council and the elected chamber.
Governing Article:
Article 152
Who chairs the National Defence Council:
The President of Egypt
Approval threshold:
two-thirds
Strength of the house:
596
Why it matters for exams: The standing fact is Article 152 of Egypt's Constitution: the President is supreme commander of the armed forces, but troops go abroad on a combat mission only after the National Defence Council is consulted and the House of Representatives approves by a two-thirds majority.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Article 152 Article 152 of the Constitution of Egypt — It names the President supreme commander and sets conditions for sending troops abroad.
National Defence Council The council Egypt's President must consult before a foreign combat deployment — Consultation with it is a condition written into Article 152.
Background
Egypt's $1 billion World Bank signing belongs to a named operation, and that name is the exam fact.
The operation is Generating Resilience, Opportunities, and Welfare for a Thriving Egypt II, which the World Bank shortens to GROWTH II.
It is a Development Policy Financing operation, abbreviated DPF.
The amount is US$1 billion, and it includes a US$200 million credit guarantee from the United Kingdom.
The World Bank sets out four aims: private-sector job creation, fiscal and macroeconomic resilience, social protection, and a greener economy.
Stephane Guimbert, the World Bank Division Director for Egypt, Yemen and Djibouti, said the country was pressing ahead with a wide reform programme meant to draw in private money, add jobs and shield households.
A DPF differs from a project loan because the money supports the national budget against agreed policy changes rather than building any one thing.
Programme:
Generating Resilience, Opportunities, and Welfare for a Thriving Egypt II
Short name:
GROWTH II
Instrument:
Development Policy Financing (DPF)
Amount:
US$1 billion
Why it matters for exams: The standing facts are the programme name, Generating Resilience, Opportunities, and Welfare for a Thriving Egypt II or GROWTH II, and that it is a Development Policy Financing operation of US$1 billion including a US$200 million United Kingdom credit guarantee.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
GROWTH II Generating Resilience, Opportunities, and Welfare for a Thriving Egypt II — The World Bank's named Development Policy Financing operation for Egypt.
Background
The inflation rate of 13.9 per cent now in the news is a CAPMAS figure, and the agency behind it is worth knowing on its own.
CAPMAS stands for the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics.
It is Egypt's official statistics body, and price, population and survey numbers for the country are cited to it.
Its monthly consumer price release is what both the press and the markets treat as Egypt's inflation rate.
A separate measure, core inflation, comes from the Central Bank of Egypt rather than from CAPMAS, and in the same month it eased to 14.1 per cent.
Knowing which body publishes which number is the point: the headline rate is CAPMAS, the core rate is the central bank.
The central bank in turn uses the price data when it decides its policy interest rates.
Full name:
Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics
Short form:
CAPMAS
Publishes the headline rate:
CAPMAS
Publishes core inflation:
Central Bank of Egypt
Why it matters for exams: The standing fact is the division of labour: CAPMAS, the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics, publishes Egypt's headline consumer price inflation, while core inflation is a Central Bank of Egypt measure.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
CAPMAS Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics — Egypt's official statistics agency.