Inflation in Chile rises 1.2% in January and accumulates 7.7% in 12 months

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Inflation in Chile registered a monthly rise of 1.2 % in January, driven by a rise in transportation and food and non-alcoholic beverages, the National Statistics Institute (INE) reported on Tuesday.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) thus rose 1.2% so far this year and 7.7% in twelve months, well above the Central Bank’s tolerance range of between 2% and 4%.

“Eleven of the twelve divisions that make up the CPI basket contributed positive incidences in the monthly variation of the index and one presented negative incidence,” explained INE.

Among the divisions with month-on-month increases in their prices, transportation (2.8%), food and non-alcoholic beverages (1.6%) and alcoholic beverages (1.8%) stood out.

With a month-on-month fall of 0%, the recreation and culture category was the only one that negatively affected the CPI (-0.003%).

The products that rose the most with respect to the previous month were air transportation services (10.9%), intercity bus tickets (11.2%), and new cars (2.6%).

Those that fell the most were tourist packages (4.6%) and liquefied gas (1.5%), according to the agency.

Chile closed 2021 with inflation reaching 7.2% -the highest in 14 years-.

The Central Bank has tried to combat it by means of historical increases in the benchmark interest rate, the last of 150 points, and increasing the monetary policy rate (TPM) from 4% to 5.5%, its highest level since 2011.

The country has been recovering steadily for several months and the Central Bank estimates GDP growth of between 11.5% and 12% for 2021.

Despite experiencing one of the worst moments of the health crisis caused by the omicron variant, the country, which has 2.4 million infections and more than 40,000 deaths, has not re-imposed quarantines.

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