The cost of living in Colombia does not stop rising. In February, as reported by the National Administrative Department of Statistics (Dane) its annual variation was 13.28 percent, 5.27 percentage points more compared to 8.01 percent in the same month of 2022. The data for the second month of this year marks another record so far this century, since a level of these had not been reached since March 1999 when inflation of 13.51 percent occurred. Only in February the variation of this cost of living for Colombians was 1.66 percent, slightly below the data for January of the same year.
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The annual data of the variation of the CPI to February was slightly above the data of January (13.25 annual percent), which gives indications that the speed of growth is much lower than that brought by this cost of living in previous months. in the country.
As market analysts had anticipated, the variation in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) February was explained, mainly by the
monthly variation of the Education divisions (8.5 percent). However, the largest contributions in this monthly variation were from the Food and non-alcoholic beverages divisions (0.32 percentage points), Education (0.31 points) and lodging, water, electricity and gas (0.29 points).
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The change in February was lower than the expectations of some of the analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, Banco de la República, Citibank and Fedesarrollo, They expected a monthly variation for February of 1.78, 1.57, 1.67 and 1.62 percent, respectively.
As revealed by the official statistical entity this Saturday, five divisions presented annual variations above the average, with Food and non-alcoholic beverages being the one that disturbed the highest 24.14 percent, followed by restaurants and hotels with 18.77 percent. .
On the other hand, seven other divisions had variations below the average, being Information and Communications, as well as Clothing and footwear, the lowest with 0.09 and 7.03 percent, respectively.
The Dane also reported that in 16 cities in the country the annual variation in the CPI was above the national average, being Cucuta, Sincelejo and Valledupar those that lead that ranking with annual variations of 16.12; 14.97 and 14.56 percent, respectively.
For their part, other areas were below that average, Pereira and Villavicencio, fact that cost was less for its inhabitants in 12.15; 1241 and 12.72 percent, specified the official entity.
In its report, Dane also highlighted that the variation in the cost of living for the poorest Colombians was 14.34 percent per year, for the vulnerable population it was 14.31 percent, and for the middle class it was 13.34 percent. , while for those with high incomes it was 12.38 percent.