Inflation reached 3.8% in October, highest monthly rate of year

Inflation in Argentina reached 3.8 percent October, the highest monthly rate of the year to date, the INDEC national statistics bureau reported Thursday.

Consumer prices have increased by 26.9 percent during 2020 to date, one of the highest rates in Latin America, the bureau’s latest report indicated.

Year-on-year, inflation has risen 37.2 percent since last October. While still high, that’s substantially lower than the 50.5 percent registered between October 2018 and October 2019.

Private economic consultancy firms had anticipated a 3.3-percent rise in October. Inflation is expected to close out the year more than 20 points lower than in 2019, according to most estimates.

The highest increases in October were seen in clothing and footwear (up 6.2 percent) and food and non-alcoholic beverages (4.8 percent).

INDEC said October's rate was higher than previous months due to authorised increases in the price of fuels, seasonal products and food and drink, despite government price controls on the cost of items that qualify for a basic food basket.

Argentina’s economy has suffered high inflation for many years, with repeated governments failing to make major headway in tackling the problem. Last year, prices increased by 53.8 percent in total.

Matías Rajnerman, an economist with the Ecolatina consultancy firm, said the data was "very bad."

"3.8% October national inflation and 4.8% food and beverages! If in a year, inflation was 3.8% every month, we would accumulate 56.4% inflation that year, more than in 2018 (47.6 %) and 2019 (53.8 %)," he wrote in a post on Twitter. "Very bad data, worse considering the cepo [currency controls] and frozen prices."

– TIMES/AFP/NA