Prices in Argentina rose 4.3 percent in November, the INDEC national statistics bureau reported on Thursday, as inflation accelerated.
That jump means inflation over the last 12 months totals 52.1 percent, with prices up 48.3 percent since the start of this calendar year, according to official data.
Inflation had been expected to accelerate this month. After September’s peak of 5.9 percent, October's rate slowed a little to 3.3 percent. However, experts predicted the respite would be short-lived, largely due to greater anticipated movement in the food and beverage sector. That proved to be accurate – food and beverage prices rose by 5.3 percent, according to INDEC.
Experts also expected the government's unfreezing of fuel prices to have an impact, hitting every part of the chain of production, pushing costs up and then passing them down to the consumer. INDEC’s report suggests that occurred.
The most impacted sectors were communications (7.4 percent), health (6.3 percent) and wellbeing and associated services (4.9 percent). Education and textiles both came in at 4.4 percent.
Buenos Aires Province saw increases of around 4.1 percent, slightly below the national average. The hardest hit provinces were in Pampeana, Cuyo and Patagonia, all of which saw inflation of 4.5 percent.
Looking ahead, Nadín Argañaraz, an economist from IARAF analyst group, told Infobae that “in order for 2019 to close with an inflation rate below 54 percent, prices would have to lower to around 3.8 perent. If it’s above 5.1 percent, the annual inflation rate could rise about 56 percent.”
– TIMES/NA
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