CAIRO, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's monthly inflation rate rose by 1.7 percent month on month in August this year, the country's official statistics agency said in a statement Monday.

The annual inflation rate stood at 13.6 percent last month compared with 33.2 percent in August 2017, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said.

The CAPMAS attributed the monthly inflation rise to price hikes in some commodities and products such as vegetable, meat and poultry, grain and bread, seafood, tea, oil, dairy products and others.

The food prices increased by 2.8 percent, and beverage and tobacco by 0.5 percent.

Also, the prices of housing, water, electricity, gas and fuel registered an increase of 0.9 percent, it added.

Inflation rates massively rose in Egypt after the country devaluated its local currency in November 2016 to contain the shortage of U.S. dollars and started a strict three-year economic reform program based on austerity measures including fuel and energy subsidy cuts and tax hikes.