Despite the slowdown in inflation, daily life is becoming more expensive every day. Prepaid medicine, internet and ABL are the items that have increased the most.
Despite the slowdown in inflation, the economic situation remains complicated. According to a report by CESyAC, A family group from Buenos Aires needed $1,409,288 in July to meet their expenses. Prepaid medicine, internet and ABL are the areas that have increased the most.
The calculation of middle-class consumption, which includes housing rent, came from a report on prices made by the Center for Consumer Education, Services and Advice (CESyAC). The breakdown shows other shocking data. Only basic services for the home, a middle-class family spent $922,841.59 (66%); while the rest, $486,446.61 (34%), was destined for consumer goods.
The most relevant increases reported by CESyAC are: ABL (27.72%), prepaid medicine (7.60%), Cable TV and Internet (6.09%) and packaged groceries (6.04%). The report also records the July year-on-year inflation of some mass consumer products with uploads “sidereal“. The kilo of tomatoes that became more expensive 627.61% (it cost $621.22 in August 2023 and in July of this year $4,520.06); the one of carrots went from $228.83 to $1,500.17 and the rice (500gr) worth $293.30 a year ago, now $1,525.47.
Bye-bye fixed term deposits: is it time to buy MEP dollars, sell or wait?
The MEP dollar started the year at $990 and is currently close to $1,285, which implies a 30% increase in the year-to-date, a lower return even than that of fixed-term deposits in the same period (close to 55%). Although both figures are below inflation in the same period, the truth is that during the year, the so-called “Stock Market” dollar operated with some volatility, which led the Government to announce an intervention in the markets in July. However, Dollarizing investors’ savings or portfolios is always a recurring question.
For Manuel Ilzarbefinancial asset analyst at Wise Capital, it is not a good time to buy MEP dollars, given that the current trend is downwards“We believe that the policies implemented by the Government will generate an increase in the demand for pesos, driven by money laundering and the Large Investment Incentive Regime (RIGI). This could lead the parallel dollars to approach $1,200. In this context, It is more convenient to carry out a ‘carry trade’ with bills, and then dollarize our portfolio when the price reaches a level around $1,200.“.
For his part, the financial analyst Christian Buteler He indicated that if one is thinking It is always better to dollarize your portfolio when the dollar is calm or falling. and not go out and pay any price. “It is clear that the dollar at these values, at least, is not expensive,” he said. In this regard, he recalled that, since the intervention, The dollar fell to $1,250 and rebounded from there. “Timing is very difficult, to decide whether it is better today or whether it is better in a week,” he said.
For Buteler, The dollar will have an upward trend, at least as long as the currency controls are maintained. “It will recover part of what was lost in the first half of the year against inflation, so should rise more than inflationIf you are thinking about dollarizing your portfolio, These values are acceptable. The MEP at less than $1,300 is not a bad price,” he said in an interview with this media outlet.
Source: Ambito
