RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Along with the rise of the blue dollar, inflation shows no signs of slowing and is on track to end the first month of the year with an increase of almost 4%. It will be two weeks before Indec releases the official figures for January. Still, private readings warn that after hovering around 3% per month for several months, the cost of living may have taken another step up to 4%.
As has been repeated for several months, food continues to be the main driver of the increase, even though the index also had a powerful impact on the leisure item and the vacation effect in January.
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“January is a month of high seasonality, and now it is tourism. This year, the related items, such as restaurants, travel, and hotels, are leading the monthly increase more than in other years,” warned economist Maria Castiglioni, director of C&T Asesores Económicos. She estimates that inflation will exceed 4% in the first month of 2022, possibly reaching 4.5%.
“In food and beverages, we see a strong increase, in fruits, vegetables, and other products, such as dairy – in general in almost all items. On January 7, the previous price agreement expired, which also had not helped contain inflation, and this month there were significant increases in the rest of the prices in general, except for clothing, where there were dissolutions in January, and a little less in housing maintenance, because there were no sharp increases,” Castiglioni added.