March inflation in Argentina was 7.7%, with an acceleration of 1.1 percentage points in relation to the 6.6% in February and an interannual variation of 104.3%, reported this Friday the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec). Both measurements are the highest in the last 32 years.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) has grown steadily for the last five months, after registering a floor of 4.9% in November. Thus, despite the implementation of price containment programs, the macroeconomy shows an inflation dynamic that “travels” above 7% per month, which, if maintained, configures a projection of 125% in 12 months.
The monthly data is similar to the core CPI of 7.7% reported in last month’s publication. On that occasion, it was reported that this category gave 7.2%, below the general level, being one of the few pieces of news that would tend to estimate relatively lower inflation for April.
Concern for food and drinks
However, record inflation last month had the Education category as the one that recorded the highest increases at the national level, 29.1%, a mark by far higher than other sectors, although textile products (9.4%) and food and beverages ( 9.3%) were developed with increases above the average.
Precisely these last two categories were the ones that had the greatest impact at 7.7%. By way of example, in Greater Buenos Aires they represented 3.8 percentage points of the final figure, being 2.49 pp of food and beverages.
The dynamics are worrisome in the context of the high increases recorded by these products at the beginning of April. According to the LCG consultancy in its sectoral survey, in the second week of this month prices rose an average of 2.93%, the highest variation in the last year, and in the first 2.5%.
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