
The Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) has begun systematically publishing economic indicators that had been held under wraps for at least a decade, in an institutional shift driven by the US military intervention that culminated on January 3 with the capture of former president Nicolás Maduro and by the subsequent reconfiguration of Venezuela's financial system under Washington's oversight. The updating of historical series on the central bank's website now makes it possible to learn for the first time in years that monthly inflation reached 32% in January, 14.6% in February and 13.1% in March, while the year-on-year figure stood at 649.5% at the end of the first quarter.
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Argentine President Javier Milei acknowledged for the first time that not everyone is better off under his government, but ruled out modifying his economic plan despite inflation that has accelerated for ten consecutive months, falling real wages and record household delinquency. The chainsaw won't stop. We will tie ourselves to the ship's mast — we will not listen to the siren songs, he said at the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) summit.

Argentine President Javier Milei devoted his speech on Tuesday at the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) summit to addressing the March inflation figure released hours earlier by statistics agency INDEC: a monthly 3.4%, the highest reading in a year and the tenth consecutive month of acceleration since the 1.5% recorded in May 2025.

Argentine Economy Minister Luis Caputo said on Monday that March inflation will exceed 3%, which would make it the highest monthly reading of 2026, hours before the national statistics agency INDEC is scheduled to release the Consumer Price Index on Tuesday, April 14, at 4:00 p.m.

Annual inflation in Brazil accelerated to 4.14% in March, pushed higher by rising fuel and food prices, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) reported on Friday. The figure reverses the slowdown recorded in February, when the index had eased to 3.81%.

Argentine President Javier Milei's public image has reached its lowest point since he took office in December 2023. Multiple polls now agree that disapproval exceeds 60%, driven by stubbornly high inflation, rising unemployment, a wave of business closures and a string of corruption scandals hitting the president's inner circle.

Brazil’s central bank on Wednesday cut the Selic benchmark rate from 15% to 14.75% a year, marking the first reduction since May 2024 and the formal start of an easing cycle that policymakers had already flagged. In its statement, the Monetary Policy Committee, or Copom, said the move was consistent with its strategy to bring inflation back to target and noted that the external environment had become “more uncertain” because of the intensification of geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East.

The U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank head into this week’s policy meetings in a far more uncertain environment than they faced just two weeks ago. The Fed meets on March 17-18, and the ECB on March 18-19, just after the Middle East war pushed oil prices above US$100 a barrel and forced markets to rethink the expected path of interest rates. Even so, neither institution is expected to change borrowing costs at these meetings.

Argentine assets ended the week under pressure, pulled lower by international volatility linked to the Middle East war, in a session marked by falling stocks and bonds, a higher country risk index and renewed oil-driven pressure on inflation and financial expectations. Brent crude settled at $103.14 a barrel, while Wall Street extended its weekly losses amid concern over global energy supply.

Rising fuel prices have added new pressure to Argentina’s March inflation outlook, in a month already burdened by the start of the school year, utility adjustments and seasonal pressure on food prices. In the local market, gasoline prices have risen by roughly 7% to 8% so far in March, increasing the risk that monthly inflation could move back toward the 3% range.