Wholesale inflation slowed down in November, but remained below 1.5%

According to INDEC, the national manufactured products rose 1.9% and explained most of the increase in the Internal Wholesale Price Index (IPIM). Within these, the increase in chemical substances and products stood out (+3.2%).

In parallel, the primary products advanced just 0.6%. In this division, deflations were observed in fishing products (-5.1%) and hydrocarbons (-0.8%).

Likewise, the Imported products presented a general average drop of 1.2% in their prices, although it is worth clarifying that this segment has a very small weight in the IPIM.

How much did the flexibility influence the PAIS Tax?

In November The Government decided to eliminate the obligation to advance 95% of the PAIS tax to access foreign currency to pay for purchases abroad. While the absolute eradication of this tax is expected starting at the end of December, the measure implied a reduction in the implicit exchange rate of importers.

The director of consulting firm Ledesma and Outlier, Gabriel Caamanoexplained to this medium that this elimination, plus the simplification of regimes and reduction of tariffs may have influenced the dynamics of imported products, whose price variation was negative.

However, He clarified that the aforementioned measure “should play much more in December”since the November data compares prices as of November 15 with prices as of October 15.

How much did the IPIM evolve in 2024, in relation to the CPI?

With these variations, Between January and November 2024, wholesale inflation was 65.7%, compared to retail inflation that was almost double (112%). In the last twelve months the distance was smaller, since while the IPIM rose 155.2%, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 166%.