Buenos Aires City’s inflation increased to 21.7% last month due to increases in food, fuel, and transportation costs, according to City Hall.
According to January data from City Hall’s Statistics and Census Directorate, consumer prices have increased by 238.5 percent in the previous year.
According to the government agency’s data, inflation picked up steam last month, increasing by 0.6 percentage points from the 21.1 percent recorded in December.
Personal care, social protection, and other products saw the biggest increase in January, rising 35.7%.
Transportation climbed by 33.7 percent due to increases in gasoline prices, airline tickets, and transport charges; in contrast, the average increase in food and non-alcoholic beverages was 25.4 percent.
Bread and cereals (27.9%), milk, dairy, and eggs (28.1%), and meat and meat-related items (17.2%) were the main contributors to the latter category’s increases.
Restaurants and hotel rates increased by 24.1 percent, surpassing the monthly rate. Due to increases in vacation packages, leisure and culture saw an average 30.5 percent increase, while healthcare saw a 30 percent increase as a result of changes in the premiums charged by private health insurance companies.
In the first month of 2024, the cost of utilities—which includes housing, water, electricity, gas, and so forth—rose by 10%.
Food and drink, transportation, lodging and lodging facilities, healthcare, housing, utilities, and entertainment made up more than three-quarters of the total monthly figure for January, according to City Hall.
According to the agency, the industries causing price increases year over year were food and non-alcoholic drinks, housing, water, energy, gas and other fuels, restaurants and lodging, and transportation. These sectors also accounted for 60% of price differences over the previous 12 months.
Goods surged by 24.2 percent overall last month, surpassing the 19.6 percent growth in services.
In Argentina, the last 12 months have seen a 211% increase in consumer prices nationwide. The national government will release the inflation rate for the previous month on Wednesday, February 14, through its INDEC national statistics department.
A figure of about 20 percent is what Economy Minister Luis Caputo has predicted, which would be a decline from the 25.5 percent monthly rate that was reported in December.