The Central Bank reported that interannual inflation measured from May 2022 to May 2023 fell to 4.43%, this being the lowest rate verified since July 2020.
According to the monthly report of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), monthly inflation registered a variation of -0.20% last May, and thus, as the Central Bank had announced, inflation returned to its target range of 4.0% ± 1.0% established in the monetary program.
According to the report, year-on-year core inflation continues with a downward trend, standing at 5.51% in May 2023 (178 basis points below the maximum of 7.29% registered in the same month of 2022).
It should be noted that core inflation, more closely linked to monetary conditions, has been registering monthly variations of 0.28%, 0.32% and 0.20% in the months of March, April and May 2023, respectively.
The Central Bank technicians point out that the negative variation observed in the general CPI in May is mainly explained by the decrease in the price of fuels, the drop in the pound of fresh chicken and bananas, foods with a high weight in the family basket
Variation by groups
The highest incidence of inflation in May was in the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages group, when it varied -0.63%. In addition, the Housing (-0.62%) and Transportation (-0.31%) groups contributed. In the opposite direction, positive variations were observed in the indices of the Restaurants and Hotels (0.40%), Miscellaneous Goods and Services (0.30%) and Education (0.90%) groups.
The report states that there were decreases in the prices of items with a high weight in the family basket such as fresh chicken (-3.72%), green plantains (-5.77%), sour lemons (-27.67%), chili peppers (-9.51%) , eggs (-1.91%), green bananas (-3.01%), onions (-4.79%), ripe plantains (-4.95%) and chinolas (-7.13%), while other food goods registered increases in their prices such as rice (1.29%), avocados (12.10%), oranges (11.25%), auyama (6.59%) and cassava (1.13%).
Inflation by quintiles
The report of the monetary entity indicates that the price indices by socioeconomic strata, show more accentuated negative rates in the quintiles with the lowest income (1, 2 and 3), affecting this behavior the negative inflation of the CPI of the group Food and Beverages No Alcoholic, which has a greater relative weight in the baskets of these quintiles, as well as the drop in the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for housing.
Quintile 1 varied -0.30%, quintile 2 -0.26% and quintile 3 -0.20%. While the indices of the highest income quintiles (4 and 5), experienced variations of -0.20% and -0.11%, respectively , due to the incidence of the fall in the prices of fuels and automobiles that have a higher weighting in the baskets of these two strata, in addition to the decreases in the prices of food goods and the Housing group.