Increases in prices of tomatoes, onions, sweet peppers and garlic, among other food products, gave a boost to the prices paid by consumers in July, according to data presented on Tuesday by the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC).
Thus, accumulated inflation – measured by the consumer price index (CPI) – reached 1.33%, a figure still below the Central Bank’s target range for this year, between 2% and 4%.
The group called “Food” is the most important in the calculation of inflation, since it represents more than a fifth of it.
The contribution of July was of 0.32%. In July of the last five years, the highest monthly percentage change was registered in 2016 with 0.93%, while in 2015 the only negative variation was presented with -0.43%.
Compared to a year earlier, price growth over the past month was 1.16%. This makes it the second lowest annual variation of the last 10 years for the month of July.
Of the 315 goods and services included in the consumer basket of the CPI, 48% increased in price, 36% decreased in price and 16% did not change during the past month.
According to an analysis of the stock market firm Aldesa, the result slows down the pace of gradual return towards the target range of the Central Bank. However, analysts perceive it as transient, so that by the end of the second half of the year, inflation will be within that range.