Venezuela Inflation October 2022: index reaches 142.6% accumulated, according to OVF

Inflation continues to advance steadily in Venezuela this year. For October, the Venezuelan Observatory of Finance (OVF), promoted by the opposition, placed monthly inflation at 14.5% and accumulated inflation at 142.6%.

The report indicates that the items showing the highest price increases were Services at 19.7%, Communications at 17.2%, Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages at 12.5%, Entertainment at 10.2%, and Transportation at 8.2%.

One of the main points on which the OVF dwells is that the acceleration of inflation in October compared to September (11.5%) is explained by a factor that goes beyond the exchange rate in the country since this depreciated 4.7% between one month and the other, so that “the policy of the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) of worrying about the stability of the bolivar, besides being costly, is ineffective.

It should be noted that in September, the exchange rate depreciated 4.5% compared to August”, the text states.

Along with this, it is specified that the advance of inflation in the tenth month of the year was also explained by the increase of prices in some items such as domestic gas service (56%), water (27%), and urban cleaning (27%), as regards communications, fixed telephony rose 19%, mobile telephony increased 19.5%, internet service 11% and land transportation 8.2%.

In addition, it was presented that by October 2022, the cost of the basic family basket of food and non-alcoholic beverages increased 11.35% compared to October 2021, raising the price to US$383 on average.

“As regards monetary aggregates, the issuance of money by the BCV in October compared to September was 29.4%, and inflation stood at 14.5%, while in September compared to August, monetary issuance reached 14.1%, and inflation was 11.5%.

This suggests that the monetary pressure derived from spending has played a fundamental role in the upward behavior of prices during September and October”, said the Observatory.

In an opposite report, the BCV registered monthly inflation of 6.2%, accumulated inflation of 119.4%, and inter-annual inflation of 155.8% for the same month of this year.

With information from Bloomberg