Inflation has continued its downward trend, reaching its lowest level for eleven quarters in the first quarter of 2024 (+1.1%, 2.7 points lower than in the previous quarter), according to the High Commission for Planning (HCP).
This easing in prices would have resulted from a marked slowdown in food prices, down to +1.4% year-on-year, after having reached +7.7% one quarter earlier, and a smaller increase in non-food prices, down to +0.9% year-on-year, compared with 1% recorded in the fourth quarter of 2023, explained the HCP in its note on the economic situation for the first quarter of 2024 and outlook for the second quarter of the same year.
Underlying inflation, which excludes prices subject to government intervention and volatile-price products, is expected to have followed a similar trend, but at a slower pace than overall inflation, reaching +2.5% in the first quarter of 2024, after +3.7% one quarter earlier, benefiting from the easing of inflationary pressures in food (excluding fresh produce) and the decline in prices of manufactured goods, the HCP pointed out.
Food prices, which had risen sharply last year, were the main driving force behind the fall in inflation, thanks in particular to a -0.6 point drop in fresh produce prices, especially fresh vegetables and citrus fruit.
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