Por more than President Petro, than the Minister of Finance, than the Board of Directors of Banco la República and in general that the monetary authorities assure that inflation has reached its ceiling, and that from now on it will begin to drop and seek its normal course; every time one appears new measurement, the data shows one thing very different.
According to the latest DANE report, released this week, inflation at the end of the third month of the year was 1.05%, a record higher than the 0.96% estimated by the government for this period. Regarding the annual accumulated to March, the CPI was 13.34%, a figure higher than that of February, which had been 13.28% and again the highest in the last 24 years.
The Government expected, according to what the monetary authorities had said, an average Consumer Price Index of 13.24%, with a range that went from 13.16% and a maximum expectation of 13.32%; however, the market showed otherwise and inflation ended up contrary to official forecasts.
According to the Government, the policy announced by President Petro to grant new subsidies for the purchase of inputs necessary for agricultural production and food treatment would be reflected in a significant decrease in their prices and consequently in a drop in inflation; but it was not like that.
The Minister of Finance had said that with a cut-off to March, an indicator would already be at the ceiling, based, on the one hand, on the decrease that can be seen in the prices of some foods and, on the other, on the new international scenarios; however, none of this seems to have influenced the behavior of the CPI in the month that has just ended.
Fortunately, Pereira was saved from all this uncertainty. Annual inflation in this capital at the end of the first quarter of the year was 12.74%, 0.60 percentage points below the national average, which places it in second place on the list of cities with the lowest inflation, second only to by Villavicencio that showed a CPI of 12.49%.
Pereira has maintained for several years now a cost of the Family Basket below the national average, which has always placed it among the Top five cities with the lowest inflation, a position that, despite all the adverse conditions, has managed to keep
Inflation continues, then, with everything, to get out of hand and time is running out for this phenomenon to show the first decreases and to think, as the monetary authorities have announced so many times, of having a Consumer Price Index at the end of the year, in single digits.