January inflation was 20.6% according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) reported this Wednesday by the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC).
This is the first measurement of the year and the second to be disseminated since Javier Milei took over as head of the national Executive on December 10.
The CPI had registered a 25.5% increase in December, closing the year with a 211.4% increase in prices.
That record for the last month of the year in Argentina was the highest since March 1990 and interannual inflation was the highest since May 1991. In November, the jump in the CPI had been 12.8%.
Private estimates had anticipated that the price increase would be in a range of between 20% and 23%, below the official number from the previous month.
In the predictions they spoke of a small slowdown in the third week of the month as the key to the slight decline.
For its part, the first Market Expectations Survey (REM) of the year from the Central Bank, published in recent days, showed that the economists participating in this survey calculated a monthly inflation of 21.9% for January (-3, 1 percentage points compared to the previous REM). For February they estimated a monthly inflation of 18% and for the year of 227%.
In the preview, presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni said that the Government is "very enthusiastic" about "all the work that is being done" to slow down the current levels of inflation, although he stressed that "clearly there is still a long way to go" before it can be " feel some satisfaction with these numbers.
In a press conference held at the Casa Rosada, Adorni reiterated that "there is no better battle against inflation than pulverizing the fiscal deficit and ending the money-making machine," although he also warned that the effects of "changes in political monetary and fiscal take time" to be reflected in price stability.
As a preview of the data reported this Thursday by the INDEC, the price index of the City of Buenos Aires - which is usually in line with the national indicator - had recorded a record of 21.7% in January, barely higher than the 21.1 % recorded in December.
With these data, in 12 months, Buenos Aires' interannual inflation reached 238.5%.
News in development