economy and politics

Inflation in Mexico picks up 8.5% in the first half of October

Inflation in Mexico picks up 8.5% in the first half of October

The inflation underlying, that is, the one that eliminates prices with greater volatility, advanced 8.39% at the annual rate, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography released this Monday.

Both measurements showed their highest levels since 2000.

In his morning lecture, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador He said he was confident that inflation will lose strength in the coming weeks.

“We are going to continue looking for it to go down. I am sure that in the case of food it will go down because of the agreement we have with producers and distributors. An agreement was signed so that the basic basket of 24 products is sold at 1,039 pesos and the prices in most cases are below”, he declared.

He added that self-service companies such as Walmart, Soriana and Chedraui have or will have a free food import license without tariffs or bureaucratic procedures: “They are responsible for the quality of imported products,” he said.

Agricultural prices give a break

During the first half of October, the prices of agricultural products decreased 0.46% and those of energy and tariffs authorized by the government increased 1.30%. The foregoing was due to the conclusion of the subsidy for the electricity rate program for the summer season in 18 cities in the country.

Electricity prices, therefore, were the ones that showed the increase with the greatest incidence on inflation with a fortnightly variation of 17.46%.

Other products that increased in price were corn tortillas, with an increase of 0.93%, tomatoes (9.31%), low-octane gasoline (0.37%), and beer with an increase of 1.03%.

On the other hand, the price of potatoes fell by more than 10% compared to the last fortnight of September. While the price of onion fell 11.22%, that of avocado, 10.16%; orange 10.64%; the lemon, 7.41% at a fortnightly rate. LP gas also reduced its price by 5.05%.

most expensive credit

Banxico, which has a permanent inflation target of 3% +/- one percentage point, has increased the benchmark rate by 525 basis points (bp) in its last 11 monetary policy meetings to its current level of 9.25%.

His next decision is scheduled for November 10 and analysts anticipate a further increase of 75 basis points, according to the most recent survey by financial group Citibanamex. For the end of the year, the projection is of a rate level of 10.50%.

“With the Fed still in hawkish mode, we still believe that Banco de México will go ahead with another 75 basis point hike in November.” But these latest figures suggest the end of the tightening cycle is not too far off,” said Jason Tuvey, emerging markets economist at Capital Economics.



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