LatinNews Daily - 10 April 2024

*Mexico’s national statistics institute (Inegi) has released its consumer price index for March, which shows that the monthly inflation rate stood at 0.29%, bringing the annual rate to 4.42%. This is up from monthly inflation of 0.09% in February, when the annual rate stood at 4.40%. Core inflation – which excludes items with highly volatile prices – stood at 4.55% in annual terms, down from 4.64% the previous month. Within the core index, merchandise prices increased 0.22% on the previous month, while the price of services was up 0.69%. Inegi notes that within the non-core index, prices of agricultural products decreased by 0.53% and those of energy and government-authorised tariffs increased by 0.16%. The rise in inflation comes after the decision on 21 March by Mexico’s central bank (Banxico) to lower interest rates by 25 basis points to 11%, the first modification since 30 March 2023, citing slowing inflation, among other factors.