Food inflation is accentuated and prices grow at a rate of 4.4% in January

The rise in food prices became more evident in the third week of January, especially due to the increases detected in meat. The weekly monitoring carried out by the consulting firm LCG showed that the variation of food -during the third week of the month- averaged 1.9%, accelerating 0.8 pp compared to the previous week. In the previous two weeks, the increases averaged 1.2 and 1.1% respectively.

Without the incidence of the increases registered in meats, the percentage of the third week would have closed at 1.4%, the consultant’s analysts warned, due to the high incidence that meat has in the consumer basket: 0 , 89% weekly.

In the period analyzed, the item with the highest increase was “Ready to go meals” (5%); meat followed with 2.9%, fruits, 2.3%; sugars, sweets and cocoa 2% and dairy products and eggs, 1% rose in the third week.

On the other hand, the products that had the lowest increases in the third week of the month were drinks and infusions for home consumption (0.3%); baked goods, cereals and pasta (0.5%) and vegetables (0.8%). Meanwhile, oils did not register increases.

Another data that attracted attention in the last measurement of these 8,000 foods and beverages from 5 supermarkets was the increase in the number of products that registered price increases. In the third week of the month this occurred in the 16% of the products surveyed, when since the last week of November of last year, that percentage had not exceeded 9%. “There is a greater quantity of foods that increase their prices, without great changes in volatility,” LCG stated in its report.

Finally, the data from the consultancy show that the food and beverage index accumulates an average monthly inflation of 4.4%. These price levels leave a carry-over for the rest of January of 4.9%. Within the behavior of prices at a monthly level, in the last four weeks, meats (9.8%) and fruits (6.2) sustain the highest increases.

The Government is watching with special attention the increases in food due to the impact that these have on the spending of families with less purchasing power. And especially, because the basic food basket (CBA) rose in 2020, 45.5% on average. Well above the general level of inflation that closed the year with a rise 36.1%.

In this context, the Secretary of Commerce has already warned that the Maximum Prices that expired on January 31, will be extended. The idea is to delist some articles from this plan, “as they are added to Care Prices or evaluated according to other variables,” confided a source from the secretariat in charge of Paula Español.