MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay's interannual inflation stands at 4.1% in May

Gasoline rose 1.95% on average, the INE found

Uruguay's National Statistics Institute (INE) released a report Wednesday in Montevideo showing that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) went up 0.4% in May for an accumulated 3.25% in 2024 and a 4.1% yoy. In May 2023, inflation for the previous 12 months amounted to 7.1%.

According to the INE, Food and non-alcoholic beverages went up by 0.21%, followed by Transport (0.05%), Restaurants and accommodation services (also 0.05%), Insurance and financial services (0.04%), and Clothing and footwear (0.03%).

In an itemized description, vegetables, tubers, and legumes represented the highest variation climbed 10.83% driven by bell peppers (57.24%), pumpkins and zucchinis (37.78%), and onions (13.83%); followed by Coffee and coffee substitutes (3.85%), soluble coffee going up 4.06%.

On the other hand, fruits and nuts went down 6.23%, due to significant falls in citrus fruits, oranges recording a 21.46% slump.

In Insurance and Financial Services, ”price increases were registered in Private Comprehensive Health Insurance (3.42%), Automobile Insurance (0.58%) and Payments for Banking and Banking House Services (0.39%),” the INE report noted.

Gasoline rose 1.95% on average; while Restaurants and cafés registered a 0.59% upward adjustment.

Earlier this week, the INE also reported that unemployment in April in the South American country remained at 9% (168,700 people out of 1,711,200) of the economically active population, which represented no variation from the previous month. The figure was smaller in an urban area such as Montevideo (7.6%) but rose to 9.9% in the rest of the country (9.9%).

The INE also mentioned that an additional 9.4% were underemployed, (working less than 40 hours per week but would like to work more).