Colombia: Inflation eases in February from January
Latest reading: Consumer prices rose 5.3% in annual terms in February, following a 5.4% increase in the prior and remain above the upper limit of the Central Bank’s 2.0–4.0% inflation target. That said, the reading came in below market expectations.
Relative to the previous month’s figures, price pressures reduced for housing and utilities in February (+3.9% on a year-on-year basis vs +4.6% in January). In contrast, there were higher price pressures for food and non-alcoholic beverages (+5.8% vs +5.1% in January) and restaurants and hotels (+9.6% vs +9.0% in January).
Meanwhile, core consumer prices were up 6.1% in annual terms in February, following a 5.9% rise in the prior month.
Finally, consumer prices were up 1.08% in February in month-on-month terms, following a 1.18% rise in the previous month.
Panelist insight: Commenting on the outlook, Santiago Tellez, analyst at Goldman Sachs, stated:
“The minimum wage hike will continue to dominate the dynamics of ex-rent services, especially through April. We see a more limited wage impact on the high-CPI weight rent component, which is mostly backward-indexed to past inflation. […] On the slightly more constructive side, we anticipate some progress from the lagged impact of COP strengthening on tradables inflation.”