Charts of the week
CPI
Inflation figures issued alarming signals as the headline number more than doubled year-on-year in October, rising by 3.4 pct, from 1.6 pct in the previous month. The average CPI of the rolling 12-month period was 4.2 pct. Food inflation is persistent, rising by 9.9 pct, accelerating from September. Basic goods saw some of the strongest rises with bread, meat and milk ranging from 3.7 to 8.3 pct YoY, with vegetables also up by 12.3 pct annually, fruits up by 20.5 pct and oils rising by 26 pct.
Import prices
The pace of contraction in import prices lost further momentum in September, falling by 9.2 pct YoY, from 14.6 pct in the previous month. Although prices have been contracting annually since February, there is a serious base effect as last year prices during the same period grew by close to 40 pct. What is even more worrying is that month-on-month the index posted an increase of 3.9 pct, from a rise of 1.4 pct in the previous month, with the index growing monthly since June, after seven consecutive monthly contractions.
