If you look at the interannual variation in the prices of clothing and footwear, it was less than 3% in 10 of the 33 countries. In this ranking, Argentina is the second most expensive country after Chile. Argentina is followed in third place by the US and Colombia.
However, when looking at the monthly comparison, the country appears in first place with an increase of 120.6% and followed by Turkey (24.2%), the Czech Republic (16.3%) and Estonia (11.1%).
If we consider the variation of the last two quarters of Clothing and footwear (seasonal), it can be seen that: Quarterly inflation increases in two countries and decreases in thirty-one. Main countries where it accelerates: Chile (4.1 pp, from 0.5% to 4.7%) and Korea (+3.5 pp). Main countries where it slowed down: Portugal (-31.9%), the Netherlands (-38.6pp) and Greece (-57.8pp).
In a context of price fluctuations, what is relevant is to evaluate the evolution of relative prices, that is, the relative increase or decrease in price of a good. In Argentina, clothing items became relatively more expensive by 10.9% in the last year, that is, 10.9% more other goods are required to buy the same units of clothing as a year ago.
Meanwhile, in the average of countries it became relatively cheaper by 3.6% (table 4). For its part, in the last 61 months, clothing and footwear became relatively more expensive in Argentina by 24.8%.
Meanwhile, in the average of countries they became relatively cheaper by 17.0%. Indeed, “in Argentina today it is necessary to allocate 24.8% more units of other goods to buy the same units of clothing as in December 2017. In the countries as a whole, with 17.0% fewer units of other goods the same number of clothing units can be bought today as 61 months ago. Argentina is the only one of the 33 countries where clothing and footwear have become relatively more expensive in the last 61 months”said Argañaraz.
Source: Ambito
