CAIRO, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said on Monday that it targets an inflation rate of nine percent, with three percent up or down, by the fourth quarter of 2020.

In a statement, CBE Deputy Governor Lubna Helal said the bank seeks more stability in prices in the medium term.

The bank's policy is based on increasing exports, reducing imports to improve the labor market, focusing on entrepreneurship and merging the informal economy into the formal one, said Helal.

She pointed out that the CBE took an unprecedented step in May 2017 when it announced that it targeted an inflation rate with an average of 13 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018, despite economic shocks.

According to CBE, inflation rates dropped from 35 percent in July 2017 to 12 percent in December 2018.

Inflation rates have been rising in Egypt after the country devaluated its local currency in November 2016 to deal with 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.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) supported Egypt's economic reform plan with a 12-billion-dollar loan, two-thirds of which has already been delivered.

Egypt expects a tranche of two billion dollars from the IMF loan within weeks.