It is that in the second month of the year the food and drinks They boosted the index, with a rise of 9.8%, according to INDEC. During March, a certain slowdown was noted in this areawith smaller increases in meats, although seasonal and regulated prices push the CPI upwards.
For each case, according to the survey carried out by the LCG consultancy, in the third week of March, the rise in food prices averaged 0.46%decelerating 0.41 percentage points compared to the previous week.
“The food and beverage index presented an average monthly inflation of 5% in the last four weeks (decelerating for the fourth week in a row) and 4.4% end to end in the same period”, they pointed out from the firm, and detailed: “So far this month, inflation has accumulated 2.7%”. In the first three weeks of February, for example, the same index had accumulated an increase of around 4%.
The LCG report highlighted that vegetables and dairy led the rise during the last week, while meat had a negative variation of 0.5 points. “The percentage of products with weekly increases was 8%marking two consecutive weeks of low ”, the study detailed.
In addition, if the inflation of the last four weeks is considered, baked goods were the item that increased the most (8.2%), displacing meat, which occupied that place during the last five weeks.
For its part, according to the survey of retail prices carried out by the consultancy eco goin the third week of March a variation of the 1.8% compared to the previous week. “With this data and considering a weekly variation projection of 1.4% for the next two weeks of the month, inflation for food consumed at home in March would climb to 7.6% per month,” they projected from the firm. A figure that, in this case, would be located slightly below the 7.7% estimated by the consultant in February.
overall level
Regarding what may happen with the general inflation data in March, from Econviews they indicated that “It looks very similar to February, maybe a few tenths more.” In addition to the pressure that the rise in food can exert, the firm highlighted the seasonality of the month and the rise in transport.
In fact, as observed in the IPC GBA that measures Ecolatina, in the first fortnight of the month an increase of 7.1% was observed compared to the first fortnight of February.
“For seasonal reasons, March tends to be a month with higher monthly inflation than the monthly average for the rest of the year, where the greatest increases usually affect Clothing -due to the change of season- and Education -due to the start of classes- ”, they explained from the firm.
“Within this framework, March will be a month where different increases will impact punctually: private schools (16.4%); prepaid (7.7% for those who receive net income equal to or greater than $392,562 and 5% for those who have salaries less than that amount); subway fares (38%); fuels (3.8%); trains and buses (6%); water and gas rates; the prices of television, cable and internet, taxis (30%) and domestic service (4%)”, they concluded from Ecolatina.
Source: Ambito
