Caputo highlighted March inflation published by INDEC

The Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, analyzed the 11% inflation rate in March that INDEC released this afternoon and valued the “path of deceleration that has been taking place since December.” In a post on the social network X, the head of the Ministry of Finance highlighted that “core inflation, which excludes the regulated and seasonal components of the index, was 9.4%, standing in single digits monthly for the first time since October last year.” In addition, he remarked that the declines in the general price level continue to be below the estimates of the market analysts who report to the BCRA in the Market Expectations Survey (REM), “reflecting an overestimation of projected inflation of 27 percentage points versus the accumulated real inflation for the December/March period.” According to the minister’s analysis, the sharp deceleration in inflation is a consequence of the implemented economic program, the pillars of which are fiscal balance and the recomposition of the BCRA’s balance sheet. Given “the combination of fiscal, monetary and exchange rate anchors, and the measures that are being implemented to debureaucratize domestic trade and normalize foreign trade, they are essential to sustain this path of disinflation,” he concluded. For the projection of what the April index could be, Eugenio Marí, Chief Economist of the Libertad y Progreso Foundation, indicated that in the progression adding the first week of April, the retail price index grew by 10.2% monthly. In other words, the price index continues to decelerate.” Based on these data, we project that April will close with a monthly increase of 9.5%; even in the face of the impact of the rate hike. This is because the impact of updating regulated prices is offset by a sharp deceleration of non-regulated prices, which already in March traveled at a single-digit monthly rate and in April could rise by around 6%-7%,” he concluded.

Original source in Spanish