Argentine authorities are admitting that inflation in January of 2023 was high and that in that scenario meeting the targets agreed upon with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will not be easy. At the same time, Economy Ministry teams were reported to be planning new batches of measures to reverse the negative impact of prices going up, it was reported in Buenos Aires.
Chile’s annual inflation eased to 12,3% in January, but consumer prices rose well above forecast in the first month of 2023 January as the costs of food and beverages jumped, strengthening the central bank’s argument that it’s still too early to consider cuts to borrowing costs.
The United States Federal Reserve is not satisfied with the evolution of inflation in the country and has warned the fight is not over, and could possibly result in higher interest rates that those markets are anticipating and despite of growing fears they could lead to a recession.
With a Consumer Price Index (CPI) for January 2023 expected at 5.6%, Argentina's Central Bank (BCRA) issued a report Friday forecasting that inflation for the entire year would be 97.6% while the country's Gross Domestic Product (the sum of all services and goods traded) will only grow by 0.5%.
The European Central Bank increased its basic interest rate 50 basis point to 2,5% and anticipated it intended to hike by another 50 basis points in March. The move follows four hikes in 2022 which brought euro zone rates out of negative territory for the first time since 2014.
Argentina's inflation for the year 2022 has been reported to stand at 94.8%, the highest in 32 years, according to the report by the National Institute of Statistics and Census (Indec) released Thursday. It was also one of the highest in the world.
Brazil's National Wide Consumer Price Index (IPCA) is now expected to have grown 5.76% by the end of the year, a marginal drop from the 5.79% projected in the previous Focus Bulletin weekly report by South America's largest country's Central Bank.
According to a study released Wednesday, Brazil's inflation in November was below that of October for all income groups.
Uruguay's inflation for the month of November of 2022 showed a -0.28% variation according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE) report released Monday. With these data, the accumulated CPI increase for the year reached 8.57% and 8.46% interannually (in the last 12 months).
Brazil's yearly inflation has been projected to reach 5.92% by the end of 2022, a 0.01% increase from last week's estimates, according to the Central Bank's (BCB) bulletin released Monday, while the Gross Domestic Product is expected to close at 3.05%.