In line with the calculations that the various private consultancy firms are carrying out, the “inflation of workers” measured by the Metropolitan University of Education and Labor (UMET) has been placed at 6.3% in February.
In this way, the evolution of retail prices, according to this survey, accelerated by 0.8 percentage points compared to the January record. The most relevant fact is that Triple-digit annualized inflation for the first time since the end of the hyperinflations of 1989 and 1990, and was classified in the 101.8%.
In turn, in the first two months of the year prices accumulated a rise of 12.1%. This increase, if maintained throughout 2023, would be compatible with an accumulated inflation of 98.9%.
Inflation in February was driven by Education (16%), something that coincides with the restart of the school year. And it was followed by the titles of Health (6.9%) and Food and Beverage (6.5%).
This last category, with a high incidence in general, was particularly guided by fruit, infusions and meatswhich began to rise above the general level after more than six months of relative price moderation.
The official February inflation index will be published by INDEC on 14 March. Analysts contributing their forecasts to the Survey of Market Expectations (REM) of the Central Bank, estimates that the increase will be 6%. This is 0.6 points higher than the value expected in the previous survey.
For its part, as highlighted by UMET in its latest inflation report, formal employment in the private sector continues to grow (It’s been on the rise for 29 consecutive months, which hasn’t happened since 2009), albeit with some slowdown as the level of activity dipped in the latter part of the year. This coincided with tighter import controls – limiting industrial production – and exchange difficulties.
The trend in employment was particularly dynamic, with a year-on-year increase of 4.4%. Compared to the end of 2019, there are 272,000 more registered private employment jobs, although 4,000 jobs remain to be recovered from the April 2018 peak.
The report also analyzes what is happening with self-employment, a particularly dynamic segment in recent years, thanks to the single tax and, in particular, the single social tax.
Real salary, for its part, saw a marked improvement in December, as a result of the implementation of the non-paying allowance set by the Government and the fact that most female equals ended up with inflation-like salary increases in 2022 .
Compared with December 2019, the median real wage in the registered private sector increased by 3.5% to its highest level since March 2020.
“However, the inflationary acceleration of recent months raises a question mark about the sustainability of the recovery in the last stretch of 2022. In turn, compared to the beginning of 2018, the median real wage is almost 12% lower,” he said. underlined the work of UMET.
Source: Clarin
