Soaring food prices was the theme of the night on the airwaves last night:Yahduth Fi Masr’s Sherif Amer hosted a number of women to check in on how they have been coping with rising food prices this Ramadan and share tips and tricks for struggling families to make the most of their meals (watch, runtime: 1:37 | 1:13 | 1:08 | 3:27).

Everyone is feeling the pinch of inflation: “Regardless of your level of income and your level of spending, we’re all struggling with inflationary pressures,” Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa said (watch, runtime: 4:03), adding that prices are increasing on a weekly basis. Inflation soared to a fresh five-year high in February, jumping to 31.9% y-o-y.

Another vote for a rate hike today: Inflation will push the central bank to move forward with a rate hike when it meets later today, economist Mostafa Badra told Moussa (watch, runtime: 5:01). Badra joins the majority of the economists and analysts we surveyed earlier this week in expecting the bank to raise interest rates to curb soaring inflation.

A new round of high-interest CDs? Badra is expecting (watch, runtime: 6:20) banks to issue high-interest certificates of deposit (CDs) as people withdraw the EGP 750 bn they poured into the National Bank of Egypt and Banque Misr’s one-year certificates launched following the first devaluation last March.

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