QCOSTARICA – Economist, Gerardo Corrales, foresees an increase in the number of people in extreme poverty, this caused by the rise in the cost of living and the deterioration in the purchasing power due to wages not keeping up/
Year-on-year inflation in Costa Rica stood at 5.8%, according to the Índice de Precios al Consumidor (IPC) – Consumer Price Index, while real minimum wages registered a fall and stood at -3.4%.
Corrales assured that the increase in inflation is based mainly on the behavior of food and fuel prices, which have seen sharp increases in the last several months, at first being mainly blamed on the global ‘container crisis’ and the last two months on the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine, that has resulted in historic fuel prices in our country.
According to the specialist, the number of people in extreme poverty will increase, taking into account that less economic activity is also expected for this year.
The most recent year-on-year inflation, announced by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos (INEC) – National Institute of Statistics and Censuses, is the second highest in the last 10 years.
In its report on April 7, the INEC states that the divisions with the greatest contribution to the monthly variation of the IPC are: Transport and Food and non-alcoholic beverages, which of the 289 goods and services that make up the index, 60% increased in price, 29% decreased in price and 11% did not show any variation.
See the full INEC report here.
The INEC reports that during the month of March, the relaxing of the measures, applied with the aim of reducing the exposure and transmission of COVID-19 among the population, by Health authorities made it possible to increase the collection of prices for the CPI in person.
