Year-on-year inflation in Mexico would have remained in the first half of July at levels not seen in more than 21 years, a survey of Reuters, fueling the prospects that the central bank will have to continue tightening its monetary policy.
The median of 14 estimates yielded a rate of 8.10% year-on-year for the National Consumer Price Index, slightly above the 8.09% registered until the second half of June, its highest level since January 2001.
For core inflation, considered a better parameter to measure the trajectory of prices because it eliminates high volatility products, the survey anticipates a rate of 7.54%, the highest since December 2000.
At the end of last month, the Bank of Mexico applied a historical increase of 75 basic points to the reference interest rate and warned that it would continue to raise it, even by the same magnitude, if necessary.
The central bank, which began a cycle of hikes to the key rate since last year, has an inflation target of 3% plus/minus one percentage point. Its next monetary policy meeting is scheduled for August 11.
Only in the first 15 days of July, prices would have increased by 0.39% according to the survey Reuterswhile for the core index the median of the projections was 0.31%.
The National Institute of Statistics will disclose on Friday the behavior of the consumer price index during the first half of July.
Reference-aristeguinoticias.com
