Inflation in Argentina recorded the highest increase in 20 years in March

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Argentine consumers’ pockets are being hit hard. The consumer price index rose 6.7% in March, well above market estimates, the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec) reported Wednesday.

It reached the biggest monthly change in the last 20 years. In addition, the quarterly inflation rate was 16.1%, the highest quarterly inflation since 1991.

In the last 12 months, inflation in Argentina has increased by 55.1%.

The largest price increase was in education, and the price increase in food and non-alcoholic beverages had the greatest impact on the March indicator.

The area with the highest increase this month was education (23.6%), due to the increase in educational services at all levels. It was followed by clothing and footwear (10.9%) – due to seasonal increases – and housing, water, electricity, and other fuels (7.7%).

“Within food and non-alcoholic beverages, increases in bread and cereal products, milk, dairy products and eggs, meat and derivatives, and sugar, sweets, chocolate, candies, etc. stood out,” Indec said in a statement.

Economic Minister Martín Guzmán said in an interview that inflation would rise by more than 6% in March, the highest value of the year in Argentina. The Secretary attributed these figures to the international context of price increases due to the war in Ukraine and domestic problems such as lack of political agreement and speculation.

“Today, the world is experiencing the worst inflation process in decades if you look at inflation in countries where there was none, and in a single month,” Guzmán said in interviews with C5N.

The market expected the third month of the year to be between 5% and 5.5%. In addition, analysts expect the consumer price index to rise 5% in April.