MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine inflation for April set at 4.1%

Inflation for 2021 was budgeted at 29%, but has already been more than halved.

Argentina's April inflation reached 4.1% for a cumulative rise of 17.6% in the first four months of 2021, the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) reported on Thursday.

Clothing, transport and food were the items with the highest increases, which showed the worst results during the first four months of any year since 2016, although at that time there were no reliable reports from the INDEC.

Different studies published at the time put inflation for that period at between 18% and 19.2% depending on each report.

Given that the projections of the Minister of Economy, Martín Guzmán, for 2021 had set an annual inflation target of 29%, it should be noted that more than half of that target has already been exceeded, with the national budget overdrawn and wages lagging far behind, so that those who have not lost their source of income will have lost much of their purchasing power anyway.

April's monthly figure was in line with the 4% projected by analysts but exceeds all monthly records for 2020. The government highlighted the slowdown from 4.8% in the previous month (March 2021).

Over the past 12 months, meanwhile, prices rose 46.3% and inflation has certainly picked up pace since Indec's last monthly report.

The year-on-year rise in prices in April marked a peak since March 2020, when it had reached 48.4%.

Clothing led the price increases by 6% in line with the change of season, while transport rose by 5.7% as the price of fuel increases every week. Food and beverages rose 4.3 per cent in a month, which however represented a slowdown from March's 4.6 per cent. Economists explained this as a result of falling fruit and vegetable prices combined with a slower increase in meat. Food has risen overall by 18.7% in 2021.

The items that rose the least in April were communications (0.5%), recreation (1.5%) and education (2.5%).