MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay's yearly inflation set at 7.33% after Monday's figures

The last INE report has yielded results slightly above President Lacalle's ambitious goals

Uruguay's yearly Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 7.33% as per data released Monday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), slightly above the government's target.

In the 12 months ending in May, inflation had been estimated at 6.64%, but with the new INE report, the government's range between 3% and 7% had been exceeded.

Transport prices went up 1.44% and accounted for 0.14 percentage points of the inflation index. The behaviour ”is explained by the increase in the prices of gasoline (9.35%) and gas oil (9.29%)”, and a decrease in-plane tickets (-11.49%), according to INE.

Entertainment and culture rose 2.37%, boosted by an increase in sports clubs and Gyms (17.97%) and Cable TV (2.69%).

At a lower incidence level (0.11 percentage points) were food and non-alcoholic beverages (0.39%) and housing (0.81%), of which meat rose 1.73% and oils and fats 3.56%, but fruits fell 5.20% and legumes and vegetables contracted 0.67%.

The rise in housing can be explained by the 9.2% increase in cooking gas followed by home rentals (+ 0.34%), construction materials (+ 3.68%), sanitation services (+ 3.4%) and other expenses (+ 0.92%).

The CPI has accumulated growth of 4.75% in the first half of 2021 following June's rise of 0.67%, compared to 0.02% of the same month last year.

The CPI had reached double digits in April 2020 (10.86 per cent) for the first time since July 2016 and in August of last year, it fell below the 10 per cent barrier (9.79 per cent).

The government of President Luis Lacalle Pou established an ambitious goal for inflation to be below 6 per cent in 2022 and reach 3.7 per cent by the end of 2024, according to the projections contained in the National Budget (2020-2025).

For this year, the corrected inflation expectation stands at 7.1%.