Inflation in Uruguay slows down to 7.55% year-on-year

Inflation in Uruguay moderated to 7.55 percent in the mobile year ending in February, informed the National Statistics Institute (INE) yesterday, Friday.

The increase of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in the last 12 months slowed down compared to the accumulated record of January 2023 (8.05) and February 2022 (8.84).

The CPI increase last February was 1.00 percent, and 2.57 percent for the year-to-date.

The most significant upward incidences last month were Food and non-alcoholic beverages (1.84 percent), Housing (1.37 percent), Furniture and household items (1.15 percent), and Health (1.54 percent).

The only division that showed a decline was Clothing and footwear, down 1.01 percent.

The annual CPI increase of 8.29 percent in 2022 exceeded the ceiling of the official target range for the fifth consecutive year, 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 has tightened its monetary policy by 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 a target of 3.7 percent inflation by the end of 2024.