In February, the prices of food once again took the lead in the level of increases and exerted more pressure -along with other increases in regulated products- on the price index (CPI) of the month. According to forecasts by economists, inflation for the second month of the year would be above 6%, thus bringing the inter-year variation to over 100%.
Above all, the increases in the food item, so sensitive in the official price index, have an impact low-income sectors, who allocate a greater share of their income to food expenditure.
For this reason, the dynamics of the values of the basket have motivated greater controls by the Ministry of Commerce on compliance with the Fair Prices program and, in recent days, that agency has applied sanctions to companies for 806 million dollars.
Before the end of the month, several measurements take into account the increase in prices in supermarkets and local businesses that deteriorate the purchasing power of consumers: for example, the measurement of the Scalabrini Ortiz Center for Economic and Social Studies (CESO) has showed an average increase of 1.5% in the third week of the month, which means an increase of 5.3% in the monthly cumulative. Fresh diet products, including meat, were the item that saw the largest increase, according to this metric.
In the case of the consultancy company Eco Go, which collects 10,000 products every week in four supermarkets, the food survey corresponding to the third week of the month showed a change of 1.8% compared to the previous week. “With these data and considering a 1% weekly change projection for the last week of the month, home food inflation in February would rise to 7.8% per month,” noted in a report.
In which products were the largest increases seen? In this latest pollHebeef had an average monthly change of 18.5%. Although in the butcher shops they claim that the price was late and only an “update” of the values \u200b\u200bto the inflation rate was implemented.
The Ecolatina consultant recalled that the transfer to the increase counter would have been noticed in February. In this sense, the survey by the CPI GBA Ecolatina for the first fortnight of the month reflects this the consumer price of beef rose more than 20%, explaining 1.3 percentage points of the increase in the general level, estimated at 6.1%.
According to the EcoGo survey, too fish, pink 6.4% on a monthly average; fruits increased by 7.6%; vegetables 7%, drinks and infusions, 7.7% and dairy products and eggs rise by another 5%, with food standing out among the various items, February inflation data would come in at 6.3%, 0.2 points above what was expected the previous week, according to this advice. Something that is due to “a higher than expected result in the food survey”, explained its analysts.
This month’s increases in food are added to the increases in prepaid cards (8.2%) for the highest income bracket or those who have not filled in the form and 4.9% for those with the lowest income, telephony mobile and cable services (9.8%), and electric rates (16.1%), domestic services (6.5%), fuel (3.8% since February 15), among others.
In its weekly online measurement, including in supermarkets, the consultancy LCG concluded that the food and beverage index had a monthly inflation of 6.4% on average over the last 4 weeks and 7.2% end-to-end over the same period. With this boost from food, average monthly inflation stood at 6.4%. That is, it accelerated for the eighth consecutive week and reached its highest value since the first week of November.
The inflationary dynamics of the first two months of the year are providing -thus- to obscure the numbers that the Government had made when it had forecast 60% inflation in the 2023 Budget. On the other hand, the price race also pushes the i unions to demand increases above this guideline, ie add more “fuel” to the inflationary fire.
Source: Clarin
