According to City Hall, the inflation rate in Buenos Aires City rose to 21.7 percent in the previous month, primarily due to increases in food, fuel, and transportation prices.
According to statistics and census data provided by City Hall in January, there has been a significant increase of 238.5 percent in consumer prices over the past year.
According to the report from the government agency, inflation increased at a faster rate last month, going up by 0.6 points compared to the 21.1 percent recorded in December.
In January, the personal care, social protection, and other products sector saw the largest increase, with a rise of 35.7 percent.
Transportation increased by 33.7%, driven by higher prices for transport fares, fuels, and airline tickets. Additionally, the average cost of food and non-alcoholic beverages rose by 25.4%.
The rise in the second category was mainly caused by an increase in the prices of bread and cereals (27.9 percent), milk, dairy products, and eggs (28.1 percent), and meat and products derived from meat (17.2 percent).
Restaurants and hotels experienced a growth of 24.1 percent, surpassing the monthly pace. The recreation and culture sector saw an average increase of 30.5 percent, mainly attributed to the rise in travel package prices.
Healthcare also witnessed a significant surge of 30 percent, which can be attributed to adjustments made in the fees charged by private health insurance companies.
In the initial month of 2024, there was an increase of 10 percent in essential services like housing, water, electricity, and gas.
City Hall reported that the major expenses for January included food and beverages, transportation, dining out and accommodations, healthcare, housing, utilities, and recreational activities, making up more than 75% of the total monthly expenditure.
According to the organization, in the past year, the sectors responsible for increases in prices were food and non-alcoholic beverages, housing, water, electricity, gas, fuels, restaurants, hotels, and transport. These sectors accounted for 60 percent of the changes in prices over the past 12 months.
In general, there was a 24.2 percent increase in the sales of goods last month, surpassing the growth rate of services which was 19.6 percent.
In Argentina, consumer prices have experienced a significant increase of 211 percent in the past year. The country’s government, through its national statistics bureau known as INDEC, will release the inflation rate for the previous month on Wednesday, February 14th.
Economy Minister Luis Caputo has predicted that the rate of growth will be approximately 20 percent, which is a slowdown from the 25.5 percent rate observed in December.
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