The consumer price index registered an increase of 6.7% in March, with which retail inflation accumulated a rise of 16.1% in the first quarter of the year and 55.1% in the last 12 months, reported this Wednesday the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec).
Three items led the rise: Educationwith a rise of 23.6% due to the increase in fees for private schools; Clothing and Footwearwith an advance of 10.9% by the change of season; Y Housing, water, electricity and gaswith an increase of 7.7% for rate adjustment.
Added to this was the increase in 7.2% in Food and non-alcoholic beveragesthe division that ultimately had the greatest impact on the March result of the index in all regions of the country.
In this item, the increase in Bread and cereals stood out; milk, milk products and eggs; meat and derivatives; and Sugar, sweets, chocolate, sweets, specified the Indec.
After the Indec reported the data for March, from the Palacio de Hacienda they indicated that inflation “it accelerated also driven by the international context”.
In March, “Regulated” prices increased 8.4% and they were “the largest increase” of the month, since, on average, they contributed 1.5 percentage points of the measurement.
It was followed in importance by the Core CPI, with 6.4%, while Seasonal products and services registered an increase of 6.2%, fundamentally due to the rise in Clothing and footwear.
Measured in another way, the rise of 6.7% registered in March was explained on the basis of a rise of 4.28% in the prices of surveyed goods and 2.39% in services.
Last Monday, the Minister of Economy, Martín Guzmán, anticipated that “inflation in March is going to be the highest of the year, it is going to exceed 6%”.
The 6.7% rise registered in March is the highest since 2016 to date.
In April 2016, the highest record was in September 2018, with a rise of 6.5 percent.
In that month, an exchange and financial run led to a rise in the dollar, to which was added a repricing of prices.
After this situation came the announcement of a second agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), since the first was signed in June, which raised the total amount of the loan to the country to US$57,000 million.
The second mark in level of importance of the IPC was 5.9 percent and was registered in September 2019, after the dollar went from $45 to $60 in a single day in August of that year, after the resounding victory of the formula of the Front of All on the official list headed by Macri.
Last March, the region that registered the highest level of inflation was the Patagonia with an increase of 7.4%, followed by the provinces of the Northeast, with a rise of 7.2%.
Also above the general average were the provinces of Cuyo and Northwest, with an increase of 6.8%.
For his part, the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area -made up of the City of Buenos Aires and the suburbs of Buenos Aires- showed an average increase of 6.7%, while in the Pampean region it was 6.6%.
In the Patagonia The item that increased the most was Education, with an increase of 42%, due to the readjustment of the fees of private schools; while that same item in the provinces of Cuyo reflected a rise of 15%.
In the provinces of northeastthe Housing, water, gas and electricity division increased 15.4%, double the national average, which was 7.7% and almost triple what was registered in the Northwest, where it stood at 5.6% .
In the first three months of the current year, the general CPI accumulates at the country level an increase of 16.1%, with a rise of 20.9% in Food and non-alcoholic beverages; 17.45% in Clothing; 27.9% in Education; and 16.2% in Restaurants and Hotels, among others.
