The  Banco Central Reserva (BCR), released data from the Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos (ONEC), in its latest bulletin of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the month of january 2024.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures the prices of products and services over time, whether annual, monthly or year-on-year.

The costs of products and services are affected by various factors, including fuel prices. In the last few days, fuel prices have risen, which means that the transportation of millions of fruits and vegetables must be increased, causing consumers to buy more expensive food and other petroleum products.

For this month of january 2024 there have been increases in food and non-alcoholic beverages, Transportation, Restaurants and hotels, miscellaneous goods and services and Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, while alcoholic beverages, tobacco and narcotics and furniture, household goods and articles for the ordinary maintenance of the home, registered the main monthly decreases.

According to the bulletin for january 2024, the general Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 129.76, showing a monthly variation of 0.32%, with respect to december 2023 which was 129.34, presenting a monthly decrease of 0.76%.

Food and non-alcoholic beverages have 0.67% (lemon, onion and güisquil), transportation with 0.43% (air travel); and restaurants and hotels with 0.34% (breakfasts, lunches and dinners).

For this year 2024, the 5 main products that influenced the monthly increase of the CPI were: onion with 0.09%, air travel 0.06%, tomato 0.05%, lemon 0.04% and güisquil 0.03%. These were offset by the negative behavior of some products such as french bread -0.03%, tortilla -0.03%, fertilizer and manure -0.02%, chicken egg -0.02% and watermelon -0.02%.

Likewise, the participation by divisions in monthly inflation is analyzed by means of innocence; therefore, positive price variations in 8 divisions drove monthly inflation upwards, standing out the incidences of food and non-alcoholic beverages 0.21%, transportation 0.5% restaurants and hotels 0.03% and lodging, water, electricity, gas and other fuels 0.03%.

Annual price inflation was 1.20% for january 2024, which is 5.83 percentage points lower than the one registered a year ago, when it was 7.03%.

According to the BCR, the main interannual increases at division level were presented in restaurants with 5.89%; food and non-alcoholic beverages with 3.60%, health 2.96% and alcoholic beverages and tobacco with 2.69% and miscellaneous goods and services with 0.73%.

The accumulated CPI inflation in the first month of 2024 was 0.32%, which is relatively lower than the one observed in the same month of 2023 by 0.02 percentage points, where it was 0.34%.

This behavior is explained by a variation rhythm in prices, which contributed to maintain a slightly lower inflation level than the one registered in 2023.

Translated by: A.M