MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Cost of living in Argentina rises 4.8% in March alone

Inflation will not be as sharp as of April, Guzmán forecast.

Argentina's Consumer Price Index (CPI-Cost of living) rose 4.8% during March, 1.2 percentage points above February's 3.6%, the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) announced Thursday.

Therefore, inflation for the first quarter of 2021 reached a cumulative 13% and 42.6% for the last 12 months, the agency reported.

Economy Minister Martín Guzmán had anticipated March's inflation was going to be the highest of the year, “but it will decrease as of April.”

Education showed an increase of 28.5%, followed by clothing and footwear, with an increase of 10.8%. Food and non-alcoholic beverages posted a 4.6% rise, owed basically to the increase in the prices of milk, dairy products, eggs, oils, fats and lard, meats, vegetables, legumes, bread and cereals.

The highest increase in prices was recorded within the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area, known as the AMBA and which comprises the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and its suburbs (which are politically outside the city limits), with a 5.2% rise.

The Northeast region was below average, with an increase of 3.3%; 4.1% in Patagonia; 4.2% in the Northwest provinces; 4.3% in the Cuyo region.

Fruits fell 1.8% on average in the AMBA, and 5.3% in Cuyo, but in Patagonia, they went up 2.6%, while coffee and yerba mate rose 2.3% in AMBA, but 4.7% in Patagonia.