After countries like Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Paraguay, Uruguay occupies seventh place at the regional level in the ranking of inflation with 5.1%; while, Argentina and Venezuela They rank first and second, respectively, worldwide.
At the regional level, after the Argentina and Venezuela, in a distant third place Cuba with 30% and in fourth place Haiti, with 22%. They follow him Colombia with 9.2% in all of last year, then Uruguay with 5.1%, Mexico and Brazil with 4.6%, Chili obtaining 3.9%, Paraguay with 3.7%, Peru with 3.2%, Bolivia with 2.1% and finally Ecuador with 1.3%.
However, according to estimates, most countries in the region will register lower inflation this year than in 2023. Although the analyzes of private consulting firms, and even the projections of the IMF, They foresee that in the Argentine case it will be the exception and the price rise exceed 200% again.
In this sense, the latest report of latinfocus indicated that “regional inflation should accelerate in 2024 compared to 2023.” However, this is mainly due to rampant inflation in Argentina, “since most countries should see a inflation average lower than that of 2023″. In fact, the projection of latinfocus for Argentina in 2024 it is 224%, followed by Venezuela with 168%, Colombia 6%, Uruguay 5.8%, Mexico 4.3%, Bolivia 4%, Brazil 3.9%, Paraguay 3.6%, Peru 3.2% and Ecuador 2.5%.
The special case of Argentina and Venezuela
After the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) released the cost of living index for December and detailed the annual accumulated, Argentina was ranked number 1 on the global inflation podium in 2023.
Meanwhile, after several years of Venezuela’s leadership, Nicolás Maduro’s regime came second in the region thanks to the economic policy of the administration of Alberto Fernandez (the first nine days) and Javier Milei (the remaining 22). He INDEC This Thursday, the CPI for December was released, which stood at 25.5% and rose to 211.4% in the last twelve months.
For his part, the Venezuelan Observatory of Finance (OVF), independent entity of the government, reported that inflation was 3.9% in the last month of the year and 193% for all of 2023. “In 2023, the inflation rate in Venezuela It was reduced to 193%, from 305% in 2022. This slowdown was due to two main factors: the lower depreciation of the bolivar and the comparison base,” indicates the OVF report.
This result is explained by the active intervention of the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) in the exchange market in 2023 “to stop the depreciation of the bolivar.” As a consequence, “the price of the dollar increased 106% in 2023, compared to 281% in 2022,” they said.
According to the Venezuelan report, another factor that influenced inflation values was the policy of reducing real income from the workers. In this sense, they point out that “real salaries for public employees have fallen dramatically in recent years, which has reduced the purchasing power of consumers”.
“Despite the slowdown in inflation, the rate of inflation in Venezuela is still high. The lower depreciation of the bolivar has caused a significant real appreciation of the exchange rate, which makes imports cheaper, negatively affects fiscal accounts and non-oil exports,” the report added.
Between 2017 and 2021 Venezuela suffered a continuous regime of hyperinflation, a phenomenon that, according to President Milei, should not be ruled out for the Argentina.
What is the ranking worldwide?
Venezuela also surpassed El Lebanon, which until November had registered an inflation of 211%. The troubled Middle Eastern country has the highest food inflation in the world.
In fourth place in world rankingwas located Türkiye with 64.8%, a country that registered lower inflation than in 2022 after the effect caused by the issuance of money due to the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In the case of Zimbabwe, International organizations estimate that the inflation level is around 222%, but the African country’s statistics agency reported a 26% rise in prices last year, as it changed its methodology to weight prices in dollars.
Among the most developed countries, Germany closed the year at 5.9%, Italy 5.7%, France 3.7% and USA 3.4%.
Source: Ambito
