Core inflation, which excludes the most volatile prices and serves to observe the long-term trend, increased 0.78% compared to the previous month and reached an annual rate of 7.22%.
This indicator has been on the rise for 17 consecutive months, according to the director of financial economic analysis at Banco Base, Gabriela Siller.
Non-core inflation, which includes prices of agricultural and livestock products, energy and tariffs established by the government, fell 0.14% monthly. With which it reached a growth of 9.07% per year.
Among the products that had the greatest incidence in the increase in prices were tomatoes (20.3%), gasoline (1.36%), chicken (2.94%), avocados (13.94%) and corn tortillas (2.18%). .
On the other hand, electricity prices fell by 12.31%, thanks to the warm-season electricity rate program that benefits some cities in Mexico.
Lemon, onion and bananas also had decreases of 29.01%, 19.15% and 11.03%, respectively.
Banxico, which has a permanent inflation target of 3% +/- one percentage point, has raised its reference interest rate by a total of 250 basis points in its last seven monetary policy meetings to its current level of 6.5%. .
His next decision is scheduled for this Thursday. Analysts anticipate a further increase of 50 basis points – emulating the most recent move by the Federal Reserve last week -, according to a survey by financial group Citibanamex. In addition, they expect the funding rate to end the year at 8.5%.
In April alone, prices grew by 0.54%, while the core index posted a rate of 0.78%. The products that suffered the most increases in the month were tomatoes, low-octane gasoline, chicken and avocado, said the INEGI.
Last week, the government launched a temporary plan against high inflation agreed with the main food companies in the country and that includes increased production of grains such as corn, beans and rice, but rules out the application of price controls.
With information from Reuters.
