The Inflation in the city of Buenos Aires came to 10.8% in August and expects the Economics Minister Sergio Massa, confirming that the national index to be announced next week will be in double digits. According to the data from Cordoba where the increase was 12.15%, is the second official number ahead of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) that INDEC will release on September 13th.
The monthly jump is 3.5%. Prices in Buenos Aires piled up a annual fluctuation of 79.8% while The annual development was 127.3%.. In August, the 22% devaluation after STEP had a strong impact on items such as food and beverages, housing, restaurants and hotels, health and transportation, explaining 69.8% of the increase in the general level.
The sector with the biggest increase was Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels at 13.8%, which contributes 2.56 percentage points to the monthly variation of the IPCBA. “They mainly have an impact Adjustments to Rental Rates and in the residential tariff for water supply. “To a lesser extent, increases in the values ​​of general housing costs were noticeable,” said the city’s Statistics and Census Directorate.
The segment followed Food and non-alcoholic beverages up 12.5% and an incidence of 2.22 percentage points in the general average. Within the division, the main impetus came from Meat and by-products (19.2%). Bread and cereals (10.4%), vegetables, tubers and legumes (15.9%) and milk, dairy products and eggs (7.7%) followed in second place.
Restaurants and hotels grew 8.3% with a contribution of 0.9 basis points to the overall result. Health increased by 10.8%. with an incidence of 0.89 points, due to adjustments to the prepaid drug quotas and the values ​​of the drugs. Transport recorded an average increase of 9.2% and fell 0.89 points, mainly due to increases in the prices of automobiles and fuel and lubricants for home-use vehicles.
The August data confirms the carry-over of the Commerce Department’s Aug. 14 decision to hike the exchange rate to $350 amid the abrupt fall in bonds just hours after a survey finding on prices surprised many. The double-digit specter has been around since May, when there was talk of a very sharp escalation in inflation after the INDEC peak of 8.4% in April.
The City Index is usually a predictor of what will happen later at the national level in terms of upward or downward trend in the inflation series. Recently, at the Palacio de Hacienda, it has become one of the dates to watch to predict what will happen to the number of the agency directed by Marco Lavagna. Next Wednesday, the Bureau of Statistics will release its numbers and hours later, the Central Bank will release its Market Expectations Survey (REM), which is based on private sector forecasts.
