Of 8.53% it was the annual variation of CPI (consumer price index) or inflation recorded in March 2022, according to the Dane.
After food, the residential public services division was the one that most influenced inflation.
Specifically, heElectricity is one of the subclasses that contributed the most to the increase in prices, influencing water and electricity services and ranking third, with an annual variation of 14.6%, after the division of meals in service establishments at the table and self-service, and beef and derivatives.
(See: The items that most expensive the cost of living in the country).
The reason for the increase in services is different between electricity and water, according to Juan Daniel Oviedo, director of Dane.
ELECTRICITY
In the case of energy, the increase is due to specific events: one is the recorded infrastructure losses in the north of Colombia, in the The Caribbean Region, which must be compensated with investment in order to avoid fraudulent connections and work on the quality of the service.
“We are seeing the effect of the losses, which continually affect electricity rates in capital cities”pointed out the director of the Dane.
Another fact, explained the newspaper The Colombian, It has to do with a situation in the south-west of the country, specifically in Putumayo, Nariño, Cauca and Valle del Cauca, where “The increase in the electricity bill is due to the fact that the companies providing the service must buy the electricity supply in the energy exchange, since they do not have previous contracts, so prices can be very ‘volatile“.
(You may be interested: Annual inflation in Colombia reached 8.53% in March 2022).
WATER
Regarding the water service, the rate had an interannual increase in its billing of 8.88%, even exceeding the total national inflation (8.53%).
The increase in this service, as explained by Oviedo, is related to the Producer Price Index (PPI), which rose 3.79% in Marchadding that “Each time three points are accumulated in the IPP, the companies can recover the costs under the principle of financial sufficiency. With which we are seeing a general increase in aqueduct rates.
(Also read: Double-digit inflation already hitting poorer households).
BRIEFCASE
