*Mexico’s national statistics institute (Inegi) has released consumer price index figures for the first half of January which show inflation was 0.49% compared to the previous two-week period. This brings annual inflation to 4.90%. January’s figures are slightly up from the 0.52% biweekly inflation rate recorded in the first half of December when annual inflation was 4.46% and was above the median estimate of 4.78% in a Bloomberg survey. The core price index, which excludes volatile items from its calculation, was 0.25% in the first two weeks of this year compared with the previous two weeks and 4.78% in yearly terms. Within the core index, merchandise prices rose by 0.26% and service prices increased by 0.24% at the fortnightly rate.