Argentina’s inflation slowed for the first time in 11 months in a victory for President Javier Milei after prices had jumped on the Iran war-related oil shock in March.
Consumer prices rose 2.6 percent last month compared with March, just above the 2.5 percent median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
From a year ago, inflation slowed marginally to 32.4 percent from 32.6 percent, according to data published Thursday by the statistics agency INDEC. Transport saw the biggest price increases with 4.4 percent on higher fuel costs, followed by education.
Economy Minister Luis Caputo had previewed in an interview that the print would show a slowdown from March, and assured the “best months” for the economy would arrive in June, after last year’s midterm elections undercut growth.
Argentina’s inflation slowed for the first time in 11 months in a victory for President Javier Milei after prices had jumped on the Iran war-related oil shock in March.
Consumer prices rose 2.6 percent last month compared with March, just above the 2.5 percent median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
From a year ago, inflation slowed marginally to 32.4 percent from 32.6 percent, according to data published Thursday by the statistics agency INDEC. Transport saw the biggest price increases with 4.4 percent on higher fuel costs, followed by education.
Economy Minister Luis Caputo had previewed in an interview that the print would show a slowdown from March, and assured the “best months” for the economy would arrive in June, after last year’s midterm elections undercut growth.
Amid a string of corruption scandals and an uneven economic recovery, Milei’s approval ratings in recent weeks have dropped to their lowest since he took office. The cooling in inflation may brighten that outlook.
Prices had only risen or held steady after touching a seven-year low of 1.5 percent last May, and had hit 3.4 percent in March on the war shock and back-to-school price hikes.
The government has undertaken numerous measures to prevent further fuel price hikes. State-owned YPF SA – which controls just over half the motor fuels market – pledged to keep prices steady through mid-May. The Economy Ministry suspended a fuels tax hike in April. The government also halted its plan to transfer liquefied natural gas (LNG) import duties from the state-owned Enarsa to the private sector last month and is subsidising gas imports for homes, schools and hospitals through the Austral winter.
Earlier Thursday, IMF spokesperson Julie Kozack announced the Washington-based lender’s executive board would vote on the second review of the country’s US$20-billion programme next week. The board could unlock another US$1 billion for Argentina.
Economists surveyed by the Central Bank in April forecast a 2026 year-end inflation rate of 30.5 percent, revised up from 29.1 percent a month earlier, and growth of 2.8 percent, revised down from 3.3 percent the previous month.
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by Manuela Tobias, Bloomberg
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