Merchants offer their products in a market in Mexico City, on May 4, 2022. - Mexico announced an agreement with members of the private sector aimed at maintaining the prices of basic foods in the face of the highest inflation in the last two decades.
The non-binding pact is designed to keep basic food prices stable for at least six months, said Treasury Secretary Rogelio Ramírez de la O. (Photo by Rodrigo ARANGUA / AFP) (Photo by RODRIGO ARANGUA/AFP via Getty Images)
MEXICO CITY, June 23 (Reuters) --
Mexico's inflation accelerated more than expected in the first half of June, according to official figures released on Thursday, amid expectations that the central bank will raise its key interest rate but this time in a more forceful way.
The National Consumer Price Index (INPC) grew by 0.49% compared to the previous fortnight, said the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), and the annual by 7.88%.
The figure was above market expectations as a Reuters poll released this week showed a rate of 7.70% for the headline index, down slightly from 7.72% in the second half of May.
Learn about the information from the National Consumer Price Index #INPC, with data updated to the first half of June 2022: https://t.co/qNtGfV1hwI #Inflación #México #ComunicadoINEGI pic.twitter.com/v4LayU1CkX
– INEGI REPORTS (@INEGI_INFORMA) June 23, 2022
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The central bank (Banxico) will announce its monetary policy decision later and analysts polled by Reuters expect it to raise the key rate by 75 basis points (bp) to 7.75%.
Banco de México, which has a permanent inflation target of 3% +/- one percentage point, has raised the benchmark rate by 300 basis points in its last eight monetary policy meetings to its current level of 7%.
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The fortnightly rate of core inflation, seen as a better parameter to measure the trajectory of prices because it eliminates high volatility products, increased 0.5% and the annual rate 7.47%.
The INEGI said that within the core index at a fortnightly rate, the prices of merchandise increased by 0.64% and services by 0.33%, while in the non-core index, also at a biweekly rate, agricultural products grew by 0.85% and energy and tariffs authorized by the government 0.19%.
Inflation Mexico