Egypt has reached the highest level of inflation in seven years in May, another challenge for policy makers trying to tackle a shortage of foreign currency that is slowing growth, Bloomberg informed.

Annual core inflation, a measure of price increases of non-volatile consumer goods, reached 12.23%, the highest level since February 2009, compared with 9.51% in April, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said in a statement.

Previously in March, the CBE weakened the Egyptian pound by 13%, which was most in more than a decade, and promised to adopt a more flexible exchange rate to attract foreign investment that can alleviate the currency shortage, reported Ahram Online.