During June, household expenses associated with leases, and public services such as aqueduct, electricity and gas pushed up the cost of living, according to figures released last night by the National Administrative Department of Statistics (Dane).
The official entity stated that inflation for the sixth month of this year was 0.51%greater than the variation it had in June 2021 of -0.05%, and lower than the 0.84% reported last May. However, the figure of 0.51% was the highest in the last 18 years, given that the historical average for this month was 0.10%.
El Dane noted that several divisions were located above the national average restaurants and hotels (1.06%), furniture, household items (0.96%), transportation (0.76%), food and non-alcoholic beverages ( 0.65%), and accommodation, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (0.54%).
In his presentation, the director of the Dane, Juan Daniel Oviedo, indicated that For the first time in the last 12 months, household expenses related to food and non-alcoholic beverages ceased to be those that had the greatest weight in increasing inflation., letting them be accommodation, water, electricity and gas those who ranked first with a contribution of 0.17 points.
Among the cities with the highest variation in inflation in June are Cúcuta with 1.21%, Valledupar with 0.57% and Bogotá with 0.56%. In contrast, the lowest inflation rates were observed in Riohacha with -0.09%, Ibagué with 0.14% and Florencia with 0.20%. Inflation in Medellin was 0.51%, equal to the national average.
In that context, the cost of living in the last twelve months in Colombia increased by 9.67%a figure that remains significantly above the goal estimated by the Banco de la República, which is 3%. This is how the indicator adjusted fourteen months outside the average range established by the Issuer, since since May 2021 it exceeded that 3%, then standing at 3.3%.
According to data from Dane in the last year, the category of expenditure on food and non-alcoholic beverages remains the one with the greatest variation with 23.65%, followed by restaurants and hotels with 15.17% and furniture, household items and for ordinary maintenance of the home with 13%, they were above the national average of 9.67%.
For the first half of this year, January-June, accumulated inflation reached 7.09%, a number higher than the 3.13% reported in June of last year.