Peru Inflation Eases In January, But Annual Rate Ticks Up Amid Unrest

• Peru's consumer prices rose less than expected in January despite the impact of growing political tensions, but the 12-month rate ticked up as the Andean nation battles the highest inflation in a quarter of a century, with fresh rate hikes still on the table.
• Peru’s government data showed on Wednesday, February 1, 2023, that consumer prices in the Lima metropolitan region, seen as the national benchmark, were up 0.23% in the first month of the year, well below the median forecast of 0.43% in a Reuters poll of economists.
• The recorded consumer prices were the lowest monthly increase since January of last year, slowing from the 0.79% rise seen in the previous month, although not enough to prevent annual inflation from hitting its highest since July.
• Data from statistics agency Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática (INEI) showed that consumer prices rose 8.66% in the 12 months through January, remaining near a quarter-century peak reached last year, though below a projection made by Economy Minister Alex Contreras last month (the minister estimated that annual inflation could close in January between 8.8% and 8.9% depending on how communications were restored after protests and road blockades pushed up food prices).
• The latest monthly inflation increase was mainly due to higher food and non-alcoholic beverage costs and rising hotel and restaurant prices, INEI said in a report. Decreasing transportation costs partially offset those increases.

(Source: Reuters)