Inflation slowdown in Argentina continues, decelerating to 2.4% in November

President Javier Milei is heading into the New Year with another feather in his cap: consumer prices rose by just 2.4 percent in November, below the expectations of market analysts and experts.

Inflation, so often the main complaint of Argentines, has now decelerated for a fourth consecutive month with annual inflation running at 166 percent.

Prices are up 112 percent in the calendar year, according to data from the INDEC national statistics bureau.

The news is another boost for Milei, who in a nationwide broadcast Tuesday, marking his first 12 months in office, promised Argentines that inflation will soon be “a bad memory.”

Inflation had dropped to 2.7 percent in October, the previous month – the lowest monthly level in the last three years. 

Most private estimates had expected a rate of less than three percent. The most recent REM market expectations survey, conducted by the Central Bank, forecast a rate of 2.9 percent, while official data from the Buenos Aires City government, for the same month, showed prices rose 3.2 percent in the nation’s capital.

Instead, the government has been boosted by the shaving of a further 0.4 points to record another month of deceleration.

Tackling inflation has been one of Milei’s greatest successes to date. When he took office last December, the self-professed “anarcho-capitalist” immediately devalued the peso by 52 percent, propelling inflation up to a monthly 25.5 percent. Now the rate is less than a tenth of that figure.

However, the cost of slowing inflation has been rising poverty, falling consumption and a deeper recession. More than half of Argentines are considered poor, according to government and private estimates.

November breakdown

Last month’s price hikes were led by education, which recorded a rise of 5.1 percent over the month. Housing, utilities and fuel soared 4.5 percent, with alcoholic drinks and tobacco rising four percent.

Restaurants and hotels, transport, recreation and culture and healthcare also recorded above-average hikes.

At the other end of the scale, consumer prices for food and beverages, so often the leading category, rose only 0.9 percent over the month – the lowest across all sectors. 

Regulated prices rose 3.5 percent in November, with core inflation (excluding seasonal and regulated prices) at 2.7 percent. Seasonal items were up 1.2 percent. Prices rose the most in Patagonia and Greater Buenos Aires.

Seasonal prices decreased by 1.2 percent.