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ECONOMY | 16-10-2019 16:26

Inflation in September reached 5.9%, the highest figure of the year so far

Prices have risen by 37.7% in 2019 so far and by 53.5% over the last 12 months, according to INDEC's CPI index.

Inflation in September came in at 5.9 percent, the INDEC national statistics has revealed, the highest figure of the year to date.

In total, prices have risen by 37.7 percent in 2019 so far and by 53.5 percent over the last 12 months.

September's rate was the highest recorded figure since the same month in 2018, when prices rose 6.5 percent, and comes in the wake of financial turbulence in the wake of the August 11 PASO primaries, in which opposition Peronist hopeful Alberto Fernández trounced President Mauricio Macri by 16 points. In the wake of the primary vote, the peso depreciated by more than 20 percent against the dollar.

On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund predicted that inflation would close out the year at 57.3 percent. It also predicted that prices would increase by 39.2 percent in 2020.

September's inflation was almost the same as the 5.8 percent predicted by specialists in the Central Bank's recent Market Expectations Survey (REM).

The items registering the highest increases under INDEC's Consumer Price Index (CPI) in September were footwear and clothing (9.5 percent) and health (8.3 percent) and food (5.7 percent). In contrast, public utilities – tamped down by a freeze introduced by the government in the wake of the PASO meltdown – rose by only two percent, with education up only a single point.

Prices in Greater Buenos Aires in general increased by 5.8 percent, INDEC revealed, with the Pampas and the Northeast both seeing rises of over six percent (6.1 and 6.2 percent respectively).

In 2018, inflation in Argentina totalled 47.6 percent.

– TIMES/NA

 

 

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