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Inflation in Colombia accelerated to a new 24-year high, bucking a regional trend and potentially undermining forecasts that interest rates have already peaked.
(See: Annual inflation for March 2023 in Colombia was 13.34%).
As reported by the National Administrative Department of Statistics, heto annual inflation to March 2023 was 13.34%, while the monthly was 1.05% and that of the current year, 4.56%.
The annual data for the third month of 2023 is only surpassed, historically speaking, by March 1999, when the figure marked 13.51%.
(See: ‘Price increases require everyone’s effort’: Entrepreneurs).
The acceleration of inflation in March was led by the sectors of food, utilities, transportation, and restaurants and hotels.
And a measure of core inflation, which excludes volatile food prices, accelerated from 10.9% in February to 11.4%.
The forecasts and the region
Inflation in the country exceeded the median of the projections of 18 economists surveyed by the agency Bloomberg, what happened with 13.28%.
(See: Ministry of Finance asks for help from businessmen to moderate inflation).
Price increases in Colombia are also the fastest among the main Latin American countries with inflation targets. Of course, the Banco de la República expects that the increases will begin to slow down in the near future, to return to its target range of between 2% and 4% by the end of 2024.
(See: Petro will design a plan with businessmen and farmers to lower prices).
The Issue raised its interest rate to 13%, on March 30, and extended its most pronounced series of monetary adjustment.
The Banrep forecasts economic growth of 0.8% for this 2023, compared to 7.5% in 2022.
PORTFOLIO AND BLOOMBERG
