Saturday May 13, 2023 | 5:15 p.m.
Inflation in April was 8.4%, the highest monthly figure for the Frente de Todos administration. So far this year, the cost of living has increased 32% and at a year-on-year level it was 108.8%.
The division with the highest increase in the month was clothing and footwear (10.8%) due to seasonal changes. It was followed by food and non-alcoholic beverages (10.1%), with the highest increases in vegetables, tubers and legumes; milk, milk products and eggs; sugar, sweets, chocolates, candies, and meats and derivatives.
The increases in the restaurant and hotel divisions (9.9%) were also notable; and household equipment and maintenance (8.6%). The price increase was higher in Greater Buenos Aires (8.6%) and the Pampean region (8.5%), while the Northeast (8.3%), Patagonia (8.1%), Northwest (7, 7%) and Cuyo (7.1%) were below the general figure. In particular, in the GBA the greatest variation was marked by electricity, gas and other fuels -with increases authorized by the government- which rose 13.6%.
The increase in food and non-alcoholic beverages had the greatest impact in all regions. Within the division, the rise in meat and derivatives, and vegetables, tubers and legumes, was impacted, followed by milk, dairy products and eggs; and finally bread and cereal. Conversely, the two divisions with the lowest variation in April were education (5%) and alcoholic beverages and tobacco (3.8%)
At the category level, the seasonal led the increase (12.6%) followed by the Core CPI (8.4%); while the Regulated registered an increase of 4.9%.
Today there would be announcements
The Secretary of Industry and Productive Development, José Ignacio de Mendiguren, announced yesterday that the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, will announce on this day measures to combat the advance of inflation. “Everyone talks that it will not be a good index (the one that was known hours later on inflation) and we are going to deal with it. Tomorrow (for today) Sergio Massa is going to take measures, as he has always taken, ”admitted De Mendiguren.
The package of announcements would be made with a series of measures that will be communicated throughout the weekend. There is no more information about it, but Massa and his ‘small table’ met yesterday after the act of the last welding of the Néstor Kirchner Gas Pipeline, in which he participated in a videoconference in which President Alberto Fernández also spoke.
On the fifth floor of Economy, the minister met; his vice, Gabriel Rubinstein; his chief of staff, Leonardo Madcur; and the second vice president of the BCRA, Lisandro Cleri, among other officials. That team defines a series of measures that will be announced between today and tomorrow.
“The dollar fell and not the prices”
Hours before the official inflation number for April was published, the president had anticipated that the number would be high and considered that the rise in the dollar “operates in the heads of Argentines as if there is going to be a spike and a price escalation”.
“We had a very serious problem with inflation in April, a run that took the dollar from 460 to 500 pesos. Within a week, he went up and down and back to the prices he had. But this rise in prices operates in the heads of Argentines as if there is going to be a trigger and there is an escalation of prices and then the dollar falls and the prices do not ”, he pointed out in statements to Radio 10.
Fernández insisted yesterday: “Last night -Thursday- I was talking about the issue with Sergio (Massa), we have to set ourselves some definitive objective to stop this, there are many causes that are generating this, one is speculation that there may be a devaluation, that the blue dollar it goes up, ‘just in case we increase’, that’s why many criticized me and I called self-constructed inflation, psychological inflation, it is precisely that, that it is not in the consumer, it is in the small merchant”, he argued-
“Argentina has an economy with strange characteristics, very singular, we have the longest period of formal employment I don’t know in how many years,” he said but reflected: “It also has the problem of inflation.” “One sees that there is a movement in the economy that makes it work,” he completed.
Bad start to May
In the second week of May, the survey of food prices from the LCG consultancy closed with a weekly price increase of 3.6%, accelerating 2.4 points compared to the previous week. So far, May accumulates inflation of 4.8%.
Average monthly inflation continues to accelerate, located at 8.9%, the highest since this consultancy has registered. This week, the percentage of products with price increases gave another surprise by reaching a new peak: 56% of the basket registered increases in the week.
The divisions that increased the most
– Clothing and footwear, with 10.8%
– Food and non-alcoholic beverages (10.1%), due to increases in Meat and derivatives, milk, dairy products and eggs
– Hotels and restaurants (9.9%)
– Home equipment and maintenance (8.6%)
– Culture (7.5%)
– Alcoholic beverages and tobacco (8.3%)
– Miscellaneous goods and services (6.6%)
– Health (6.6%)
– Transportation (6.5%)
– Communication (6.3%)
– Housing, water, gas and electricity (5.6%)
– Education (5%)
– Alcoholic beverages and tobacco (3.8%)
The 10 most expensive foods
– Chicken: 26.4%
– Chicken eggs: 20.8%
– Hake fillet: 19%
– Plain white rice: 11.3%
– Cream cheese: 10.8%
– Packaged sweet cookies without filling: 10.4%
– Vienna type sausage: 9%
– Frozen hamburgers: 8.2%
– French flute type bread: 8%
– Whole fresh milk in sachets: 7.7%
