Colombian Inflation Rate Creeps Up to 4.12% in November

With a 0.18% rise in the consumer price index over the past month, the year-over-year inflation rate in Colombia creeped up to 4.12% in November, according to the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE).

This is up from the 4.05% inflation rate experienced in October, which was the first time in five months that inflation had run above the central bank’s target range of between 2%-4%.

The uptick, albeit it small, also threatens the year-end prediction of the central bank, which just over a week ago, after it cut the nation’s key interest rate to 4.75%, forecasted the 2017 full-year inflation figure to come in at 3.95%. The nation’s largest bank, Bancolombia, last month also projected a year-end rate of 4%.

Year-to-date inflation now stands at 3.69%. This is well below the year-to-date figure seen in November 2016 of 5.31%. Year-over-year inflation stood at 5.96% last November, which represented another recovery step after the rate had hit a 16-year high of 8.97% in July 2016.

According to DANE, November increases in the cost of recreation (up 0.68%) and housing (0.30%) contributed the most to the the overall rise consumer price index. The other largest factors included transportation (0.20%) and healthcare (0.15%).

Food prices only increased by 0.06% last month. The cost of potatoes was up by 17.3% in November while tomatoes jumped by 11.4% and beans rose by 4.8%. The price of both carrots (down 9.3%) and oranges (down 6.2%) fell over the past month.

Though education was nearly steady in November, with a monthly price increase of just 0.01%, it represents the economic segment with the largest price increase so far in 2017 with a year-to-date spike of 7.40%, according to DANE. Healthcare ranks second (up 6.14%) while food prices have risen the slowest (1.72%).

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