MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile's 2006 inflation peaked at 2.6%

Chile's Consumer Prices Index, IPC, ended at 2.6% in 2006 with a last 0.1% push from December, according to the latest release from the country's Statistics Institute, INE.

Transport, 6.1%; Education and Leisure, 3.7%; Housing 3.3% experienced the highest increases in the last twelve months followed by Food, 1.3%; Health care, 1.3% and Others, 2.7%. The annual IPC actually dropped for Clothing (-1.2%) and Housing Equipment (-1.5%). The underlying index, which excludes fresh fruit and vegetables and fuel, experienced a positive 2.7%. Fresh fruit and vegetables dropped 10.7% and fuel soared 6.3%. Meanwhile the Producers Prices Index, IPP, increased 14.1% in 2006 boosted particularly by Mining and Quarries, 52.8%; followed by Manufacturing, 7.7%; Fishing, 6.9% and Construction 1.7%. Agriculture, Livestock, Hunting and Forestry dropped 18.9% and public utilities 1.5%. IPP for December decreased 1.5% with fisheries experiencing the main increase, 4.1%. The Nominal Income Index, IR, showed a monthly advance of 0.3% in November, totaling 4.2% in the eleven months of 2006 and 5.2% in the last twelve months. The Cost of Labor, ICMO, also increased 0.3% in November, accumulating 3.7% in eleven months of 2006 and 4.7% in the last twelve months. As to average monthly nominal income in November it reached 302.625 Chilean pesos while the medium monthly average cost of labor was 546.880 Chilean pesos. One US dollar is approximately equivalent to 540 Chilean Pesos.