CAIRO, Jun 10 (Aswat Masriya) - Egypt's annual inflation rate stood last month at 13.5 percent, a significant rise from the 8.2 percent it recorded during the same month last year, the state's official statistics agency reported on Wednesday.

The Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) said on Wednesday that May's annaul inflation rate is also higher than that of April, when the rate stood at 11 percent.

The annual core inflation inched up to 8.14 percent in May, from 7.19 percent in April, the central bank said on Wednesday.

The urban consumer price inflation meanwhile rose to 13.1 percent in May, as opposed to 11 percent in April, CAPMAS reported.

The agency owed the increase in the inflation to a 7.7 percent rise in vegetables' prices last month.

Inflation increased last summer after the government reduced petroleum subsidies and introduced new taxes in July 2014, hiking fuel prices by up to 78 percent. The inflation rate peaked last October, standing at 11.8 percent. 

Egypt's Finance Minister Hany Kadry Dimian said on Monday that inflation is expected to drop to single digits within the next two to three years, reported Reuters. He owed the expected drop in inflation to a new reform agenda set to be implemented.