Colombia has not yet stopped inflation, which totaled 13.34% in March

A vendor hands out a ticket in a market square in Bogotá, on March 30, 2023.Nathalia Angarita (Bloomberg)

The cost of living continues to rise in Colombia: this Wednesday the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) revealed that in March it reached 13.34% in the last 12 months.

It has nine months above 10%, it continues to grow, since in February it reached 13.28% and sets a new record for the 21st century, since it is the highest figure since March 1999, when inflation was declining and was at 13.51%.

The Finance Minister, the Banco de la República and most analysts anticipated that the March figure would be slightly lower than or even equal to that of February, which would signal the arrival of a delayed brake on the rise in the cost of life.

DANE revealed that the economy has not reached that ceiling, although so far in 2023 the increases have been slower than in 2022, which gives hope that it is close.

The increase during the month of March was 1.05%.

In the same month of 2022, when inflation was already rising, it was 1%, another indicator that the ceiling may be close but has not been reached.

In the first quarter of this year, the cost of living has grown by 4.56%, a faster growth than the 4.36% in the first quarter of 2022.

Unlike January and February, when the cost of living is driven by annual changes in regulated rates such as those for procedures with the State, lease contracts, fines or educational services, in March the consumer price index (CPI) It doesn't have an unusual factor.

This is reflected in the fact that the cost of living grew less in March than in February, but it is a change that is repeated every year and that is not noticeable in the accumulated inflation of the last 12 months.

However, prices in general and food in particular tend to push inflation up in the first five months of the year, explained the director of DANE, Piedad Urdinola, in a virtual press conference this Wednesday.

“Most of the prices adjust to the first prices of the year,” she explained.

Among the types of spending that grew the most in March were items for the home and construction, such as soaps and detergents, health, and transportation.

All of them increased by more than 1.35%.

In contrast, inflation for food and non-alcoholic beverages, which has pushed inflation up since it began to grow at the end of 2021, grew less than the CPI, at 0.91%.

Added to this encouraging data is the fact that inflation for the upper classes continues to be higher, in 2023, than for the lower income groups: in February the CPI for the group that DANE calls “high income” was 1.13%. , for the middle class it was 1.06%, for the vulnerable 0.96% and for the poor 0.88%.

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