Inflation in Uruguay moderated for the sixth consecutive month and stood at 7.33 percent in the mobile year ending in March, the National Statistics Institute (INE) reported today, Monday.
The increase of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in the last 12 months slowed down compared to the previous record of February 2023 (7.55 percent) and March 2022 (9.38 percent).
The CPI increase in March was 0.90 percent compared to last year’s March record (1.11 percent) and 3.50 percent in the January-March quarter compared to the previous year’s (4.42 percent).
The highest incidences last month were in Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages (2.24 percent), Housing (0.21 percent), Education (3.85 percent), and Restaurants and Accommodation Services (0.48 percent).
The annual CPI increase of 8.29 percent in 2022 exceeded, for the fifth consecutive year, the ceiling of the official target range, which since last September is 6 percent and was previously 7 percent.
Inflation began decelerating after reaching last September (9.95 percent), the highest level since July 2020.
To curb the inflationary pace, the Central Bank of Uruguay tightened its monetary policy, raising the benchmark interest rate from 4.5 percent in August 2021 to 11.5 percent in December 2022.
According to the projections in the National Budget, the Executive Branch set the inflation target at 3.7% by the end of 2024.