A private survey showed a 4.8% increase in prices for May, when in April it had measured 8.2%. Basic basket products rose 4.6% and core inflation rose 3.6%.
May inflation slowed to 4.8% according to a survey by the Institute of Mass Consumption Studies (INDECOM). In April the organization had measured a general price increase of 8.2%.
According to the study carried out using scanned merchandise information of some 28,754 tickets among 2,230 points of sale throughout the country, prices of basic basket products rose 4.6%when the previous month they had climbed 5.2%.
As an example, a one liter sachet of milk (Harmonía) went from $1200 to $1250 (4%) between April and May, and a cheese top brand cream of 290 grams went from $3070 to $3150. In the case of the meat, the kg of strip roast went from $6,500 to $6,800 (4.4%). Also, the sugar went from $900 to $960 (6.3%), per kg of banana Ecuador went from $1920 to $2000 (4%) and the kg of bread It went from $1900 to $2000 (5%) in the same period.
The core inflationwhich does not contemplate increases in seasonality or regulated services and rates, gave 3.8%against the 5.6% that INDECOM had shown for the previous period.
About, Miguel CalveteExecutive Director of INDECOM explained that “the slowdown in the prices of most food items It is mainly due to the decrease in consumption (with levels similar to March 2002) as a result of the fall in real wages”.
Finally, the specialist considered that “the great challenge of the coming months must be to maintain the inflationary fall and, at the same time, recover consumption, based on the recomposition of formal employment, salaries and retirement benefits.”
This Thursday the INDEC will release the official data of inflation. According to the consulting firms that participated in the latest Market Expectations Survey (REM) of the Central Bank (BCRA), the CPI would have risen around 5%. In April the data had given 8.8%.
Source: Ambito
