Buenos Aires (EFE).- Consumer prices in Argentina had a year-on-year rise of 104.3% last March, 1.8 percentage points more than last February, reported the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec).
In the third month of the year, consumer prices grew 7.7% per month, accelerating with respect to the rate of 6.6% of last February and going above the forecast by the market (7%) in the latest study by the Bank. Central.
Goods had a positive variation of 7.8% last month compared to February, while services rose 7.4%, data that amount to 105.7% and 100.2%, respectively, in the year-over-year comparison
Among the increases registered in March, the items “education” stand out (29.1% monthly and 96% annually), due to the start of the school year; “clothing and footwear” (9.4% monthly and 118.8% year-on-year), coinciding with the change of season, and “food and non-alcoholic beverages” (9.3% monthly and 106.6% in the year), due to the increases in meat, dairy products and eggs, highlighted INDEC.
Consumer prices accumulated in 2022 a rise of 94.8%, with a notable acceleration compared to 50.9% in 2021.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), inflationary pressures will remain high in Argentina, an economy that the agency ranked second in the region with the highest price rises in the latest World Economic Panorama, with inflation of 98.6%. by 2023, behind Venezuela, where it projected 400%.
“We expect inflation to remain high and at very high levels” and, therefore, “having a tight monetary policy, as well as a fiscal policy that is in line with what is in the program supported by the Fund, would be particularly important. ”, said the deputy director of the Research Department of the IMF, Petya Koeva, this week on the sidelines of the spring meetings in Washington.
Factors highlighted by the experts are the issuance of money to finance the fiscal deficit, which increases the amount of local currency, in a context of scarcity of foreign currency and low demand for pesos from society, which maintains high inflation expectations, as well as the so-called inflationary inertia reflected in the core indicator (7.2% monthly).
Argentina has a primary deficit goal of 1.9% to be met by 2023 and a reduction in monetary financing from the Central Bank, as part of the program agreed with the IMF, which financed debts of 45,000 million dollars through a Facilities Agreement Extended.
The latest private forecast that the Central Bank collects monthly is higher than that of the IMF, since it indicated that inflation will be 110% this year and 90% in 2024.