Egypt's headline inflation is expected to have climbed for a second month in November to an annual 13.1%, as tobacco, alcohol and transport prices rose, a Reuters poll found.

The median forecast of 14 analysts polled by Reuters was for annual headline urban consumer inflation to have risen from 12.5% in October. A bump in October ended four straight months of decelerating inflation.

Four analysts also provided predictions for core inflation, which omits volatile items such as certain food and fuel products. They forecast that it would rise to a median 12.4% from 12.1% in October. The polling data was collected over December 1-8.

"We expect to see a sequential pick-up in the alcohol and tobacco sub-component of the CPI basket, closely followed by transportation (both due to administered price hikes), offset by seasonally weaker food inflation," Goldman Sachs, which predicted inflation of 12.5%, wrote in a note.

Inflation was fuelled in part by an expanding money supply. M2 money supply grew by an annual 21.68% in October, central bank data showed.

Annual inflation has plunged from a record high of 38% in September 2023, helped by an $8 billion financial support package signed with the IMF in March 2024.

Slowing inflation prompted the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to cut its overnight lending rate by 100 basis points in October and 200 points in August.

The central bank's monetary policy committee is next scheduled to meet on December 25 to review overnight interest rates. (Polling by Anant Chandak; Writing by Patrick Werr, Editing by William Maclean)