NUEVAS PALABRAS: With 6% inflation projected for August, the accumulated inflation during the Presidency of Alberto Fernández has already reached 218.5%, by far the highest mark for equivalent periods of his three predecessors and, moreover, higher than that of the first nine years of Kirchner’s government, in which he served as chief of staff.
According to the latest report from the Fundación Libertad y Progreso, inflation in the first eight months of 2022 amounted to 55% and year-on-year to 76.9%, “remaining only 23.1 points away from the three digits ”.
The items that contributed the most to last month’s rise in the LyP measurement were “Transportation and Fuels” (13%), “Recreation and Culture” (8.8%), “Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages” (6.2 %) and “Medicine” (6%).
In this regard, we should keep in mind that the 40% increase in bus fares and the 7.5% rise in fuel over the last days of August had a significant impact on the first of the items mentioned.
For Eugenio Marí, chief economist of LyP, “the good news is that in August the collapse in the demand for money was stopped, which can be seen in the relative calm that the financial exchange rate had.“
“The problem -he continued- is that without a run against the peso, monthly inflation was 6%, the third highest record of the Fernández Administration. Although it seems like an eternity passed, in August of last year monthly inflation was 2.5%, less than half the current rate.”
Lautaro Moschet, another economist at the entity, maintained that “the data for August, which continues to be unusually high, nullified the suspicions of an inflationary spiral and, therefore, the exponential dynamics.”
“However, it is clear that we entered an inflation regime that’s one step higher than we came from. In other words, our currency is depreciating at a faster rate”, he concluded.
