Panama registers interannual inflation of 2.7%

The Panamanian economy drags an annualized inflation of 2.7% between January 2022 and January 2023, reports the National Institute of Statistics.

In one year, the largest increases in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) were registered in housing, water, electricity, and gas with a consumer price index of 11.6%; food and non-alcoholic beverages at 5.3%; restaurants and hotels at 4.6%; alcoholic beverages and tobacco 3.6%; education 3.1%; miscellaneous goods and services 2.6%; furniture, articles for the home and for the ordinary conservation of the home 0.9%; and transportation 0.1%.

While the groups that reflected decreases were: health at 2.6%; clothing and footwear 0.6%; communications and recreation and culture, both 0.4%.

The inflation of January 2023 with respect to December 2022, registered a variation of 0.9%. The groups that reflected a higher increase at the beginning of the year compared to the end of 2022 were housing, water, electricity, and gas.

Only in the case of electricity, consumers registered an increase of 39.6% due to the end of the extraordinary subsidy for the electricity rate because of the covid-19 pandemic. This subsidy is applied to homes with a consumption of up to 300 kilowatts per hour.

Airfares up
The transport group was more impacted by the rise in air tickets, which rose 18.5% in January of this year. According to the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association, the increase in the price of jet fuel has made this item have a weight of 50% in the cost structure of airlines, when a year ago it represented 36%.

The statistical yearbook published by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Cepal), published this week, reflects that the region as a whole has been pressured by rising inflation and less economic activity.

“Along with the slowdown CEPAL  indicates that the economies of the region grew last year by almost half of 2021, going from a gross domestic product of 6.7% in 2021 to 3.7% in 2022.

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