Inflation in May moderated, and the figure stood at 9.07%. This was announced this weekend by the National Administrative Department of Statistics (Dane) in the publication of the bulletin of the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
(Cartagena is now the most expensive city in Colombia).
According to the figures disclosed by the entity, in the fifth month of 2022, consumer prices registered an increase of 0.84%, while in May 2021 the increase in that reference month was 1.0%, due to to the effects of the National Strike.
(These are the sectors that contributed the most to the annual inflation of 9.07%).
“The annual inflation presented a correction compared to the 9.23% data that we had in April 2022,” said the director of the Dane, Juan Daniel Oviedo, but stressed that the data was, however, around 2.6 times the average of the last five years for May, which is 0.33%. “We cannot be mistaken that this setback is a significant correction,” he said, mentioning that annual inflation could see another spike in June.
By sectors, the one that boosted the result to a greater extent was food, with a contribution of 0.29 percentage points (pps). In turn, they were the category with the highest monthly increase (1.56%). However, according to Oviedo, this data was “good news”, since the variation “moderated” compared to the previous month, and there were important adjustments in potatoes, fruits and bananas.
After food, the item with the second highest weight in monthly inflation was leases and public services, with 0.26 pps, and a monthly increase of 0.83%; and in third place restaurants and hotels, which contributed 0.12 pps and registered the second largest variation (1.18%).
Regarding the annual results, food reported an inflation of 21.6%, restaurants are located at an increase of 14.73% in its prices compared to May 2021 and goods and services for the home and its conservation, where cleaning products are found, registers an annual inflation of 12.31%.
FUTURE PERSPECTIVES
Despite the data for May, for some analysts, inflation will remain high in the remainder of the year. “We see a temporary reduction in the annual inflation rate as of May, but it is a temporary decrease basically explained by the fact that the comparison base was very high last year,” said Grupo Bolívar Davivienda its director of economic research, Andrés Langebaek.
The economist also detailed: “We think that inflation will take an upward trend again in June and that we will end the year at 8.9%.”
For his part, José Ignacio López, head of economic research at Corficolombiana, indicated that “there is still a good stretch of inflation to take shape”, and although he acknowledged that in the last three weeks we have seen better news in some agricultural products, “there is still The dynamics of energy prices and the effect it is going to have on some tariffs are worrying”.
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