Egypt's annual urban inflation rate slowed to 9.8 percent in February from 11.4 percent in January, the official statistics agency Capmas said on Monday.

Annual inflation reached its highest rate in nearly four years in November but has been falling since then, easing for the third straight month in February.

Egypt's economy has been buffeted by investment outflows and a drop in tourism due to political turmoil since President Hosni Mubarak was toppled in an uprising in 2011.

Despite inflows of billions of dollars in aid from Gulf states after the army's ouster last July of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, economic recovery has been limited.

Mursi's fall cleared the way for Egypt to obtain billions of dollars in aid from the military-backed government's allies in the Gulf - Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait - although billions have also had to be returned to Qatar, which backed Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood.

The army-backed government introduced a 30 billion Egyptian pound ($4.3 billion) stimulus package in 2013 and followed up with a second 33.9 billion Egyptian pounds package last month.  - Reuters