[Economics] Inflation closed the first quarter without a ceiling and is the highest in 24 years

[Draeno]

 

Inflation in Colombia accelerated to a new 24-year high, bucking a regional trend and potentially undermining forecasts that interest rates have already peaked.

As reported by the National Administrative Department of Statistics, annual inflation as of March 2023 was 13.34%, while the monthly one was 1.05% and that of the current year, 4.56%.

The annual data for the third month of 2023 is only surpassed, historically speaking, by March 1999, when the figure marked 13.51%.

The acceleration of inflation in March was led by the food, public services, transportation, and restaurants and hotels sectors.

And a measure of core inflation, which excludes volatile food prices, accelerated from 10.9% in February to 11.4%.

The forecasts and the region
Inflation in the country exceeded the median of the projections of 18 economists surveyed by the Bloomberg agency, which was 13.28%.

Price increases in Colombia are also the fastest among the main Latin American countries with inflation targets. Of course, the Banco de la República expects the increases to begin to slow down in the near future, to return to its target range of between 2% and 4% by the end of 2024.

The Issue raised its interest rate to 13%, on March 30, and extended its most pronounced series of monetary adjustment.

The Banrep forecasts economic growth of 0.8% for this 2023, compared to 7.5% in 2022.

 

https://www.portafolio.co/economia/gobierno/inflacion-anual-en-colombia-cerro-primer-trimestre-de-2023-sin-techo-es-la-mas-alta-en-24-anos-580995