Cairo, Jun 14 (IANS): Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said that the country is exerting its "utmost possible" efforts to curb the rising prices resulting from global crises such as the Russia-Ukraine war.

"Prices in Egypt could have been higher in the past five or six months had the country not embarked on development projects, which provide many products and services," Xinhua news agency quoted Sisi as saying.

The surge in inflation rates in affluent Western and European countries shows how prices in Egypt could have been higher, he pointed out.

Meanwhile, Sisi said price hikes in the domestic market are not proportional to the price rise in the international market because the government shoulders much of the burden on behalf of the people, reports Xinhua news agency.

He revealed that the government decided to postpone the scheduled rise in household electricity prices for the third time in a row to ease the people's burden, especially low-income citizens.

According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), Egypt's annual inflation rate rose to 15.3 per cent in May compared with 4.9 per cent in the same month last year.

On a monthly basis, the inflation rate in May increased by 0.9 per cent compared with that of April, according to CAPMAS.