Argentina: National inflation continues upward ascent in February
According to the National Statistics Institute (INDEC), national consumer prices rose 2.4% over the previous month in February, coming in above January’s 1.8% rise. The result reflected higher prices in 11 of the 12 components of the index. The increase was largely expected due to a hike in tariffs of electricity, transportation, communication and medicine that came into effect on 1 February. In month-on-month terms, prices for communication rose 9.1%, transportation 4.5%, and household, water, electricity, gas and other fuel 3.8%. Clothing and footwear was the only component that declined in the surveyed month. The annual variation in consumer prices also crept up, reaching 25.4% in February (January: 25.0%).
National inflation is expected to be 19.7% at the end of the year 2018, which is up 0.4 percentage points from last month’s forecast. Inflation is expected to reach 13.7% at the end of 2019.
Data compiled by the Statistical Institute of the city of Buenos Aires showed that consumer prices in the city of Buenos Aires jumped from a 1.6% month-on-month increase in January to a 2.6% rise in February. Inflation edged up from 25.8% in January to 26.3% in February. The inflation data released by the Statistical Institute of the city of Buenos Aires and INDEC are not comparable, as the two index structures are not homologous. This is due to different baskets of goods, samples and data collection methodologies.