Days after the May inflation data was known, in the fifth week of last month, the price of food averaged a rise of 3.5%; driven mainly by a significant rise in the value of meat.
According to the work of the consultancy LCG, the increase in meat explains 70% of the weekly increase. The same document clarifies that excluding this item the rise in food would have been half, that is, 1.5%.
In the fifth week of May, meat showed an increase of 7.8%, which caused the drag. Then, ready-to-go meals (4%), oils (3.3%), dairy and eggs (1.6%), baked goods (1.5%), vegetables (1.4%), sugar (0.8%) and fruits 0.4% appear.
In the balance of the month, the highest increases were in ready-to-take meals (15.2%), dairy and eggs (12%), sugar (10.1%), oils (9.7%), beverages and infusions for the home (8.4%), bakeries (8.3%), vegetables (6.7%), meats (4.4%) and fruits (3.3%).
In the fifth and final week of May, the rise in food prices averaged 3.5%, accelerating 3.1 percentage points from the previous week. The food and beverage index presented a monthly inflation of 8% average in the last 4 weeks and 8.9% end to end in the same period.
This report adds to the advances of other consultants that place inflation in May close to 9%. For Libertad y Progreso, the general price increase in May reached 9.1%, the most important increase since April 2002.
In this way, the accumulated inflation in the first five months would be 44% and the year-on-year amounts to 116.9%.
For Marina Dal Poggetto's Eco Go, inflation in May was 9%, which represents an acceleration of 0.9% compared to April.
For this consultant "the largest increases occurred in the first and third week of the month with increases of 2.0% and 2.6% weekly. It is noteworthy that the rise of the third week was after knowing the inflation data for April (8.4% monthly)".
For the consulting firm PxQ, inflation in May will be close to what was recorded in April, that is, 8%. In coincidence, Fausto Spotorno, director of the Center for Economic Studies of OJ Ferreres, also estimates that last month's price rise amounted to 8%.
Meat consumption
Argentina is the country that consumes the most meat Argentina continues to lead in the consumption of beef per capita worldwide. The data comes from a report by the Rosario Stock Exchange,where consumption is estimated at 53.1 kg per inhabitant, comfortably surpassing the two countries that continue on the podium: Uruguay and the United States.
In these countries, the average inhabitant would consume 43 and 37 kg, respectively; followed by Brazil (35.3 kg), Israel (27.2 kg), Chile (26.3 kg) and Australia (25.6 kg).
Per capita beef consumption in Argentina does not reflect the marked price increase recorded in recent months. So far in 2023, it reached its maximum consumption in five years.
The report also highlights that Argentina remains the country with the highest per capita consumption of beef in the world, and the second with the highest consumption of meat, including pork and poultry, among those with more than one million inhabitants.
In the first quarter of 2023, per capita beef consumption stood at 53.1 kilos per year, which represents its highest level since 2018 and an increase of almost five kilos per inhabitant compared to the 48.4 kilos average of 2022.
SN
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