Inflation in El Salvador maintains a 15-month consecutive decline

At the end of November, inflation in El Salvador reached 2.11%, the lowest rate registered in the country since April 2021, according to the BCR database.

Since August 2022, and even amid the incidence of the escalation of international prices caused by the beginning of the war between Russia and Ukraine, El Salvador has shown a significant reduction in its inflationary levels.

Data from the Central Reserve Bank (BCR) indicate that as of the eighth month of 2022, this indicator was 7.66%, while the last measurement as of November 2023 is 2.11%, which means that the indicator accumulates 15 months downward.

Historical data show that in August 2022 inflation was 7.66 %; in September 7.49 %; in October 7.47 %; while in November and December, the rate was 7.32 %.

While for this year the decreases continued since in January it was 7.03 %; in February 6.82 %; in March 6.06 %; in April 5.44 %; in May 4.41 %; in June 3.78 %; in July 3.34 %; in August 3.09 %; in September 3.02 %, in October 2.66 %, and at the end of last November 2.11 %.

Furthermore, this downward trend shows that the current levels in the country are even below those of 2021, a year without the impact of the world inflationary crisis. Comparatively, last November’s inflation was below that of April 2021, which was 2.79%.

In this scenario, the country is currently positioned with the lowest inflation rate in more than two and a half years and is also among those that have best recovered from inflationary incidences at the regional level, where it is positioned as the second with the lowest inflation rate, only behind Costa Rica, which accumulates six months with rates below 0%.

Meanwhile, the central banks of Guatemala and Honduras reported rates of 4.3 % and 4.42 %, respectively, and in the case of Nicaragua, this data has not yet been released for November.

In this regard, the president of the BCR, Douglas Rodríguez, recently informed and referring to the inflation data in El Salvador up to October 2023 that “the country is in a deceleration process, we have 14 consecutive months [up to October and 15 up to November] that inflation is decreasing”.

INCENTIVE TO COMMERCE

The president of the Defensoría del Consumidor, Ricardo Salazar, pointed out that this deceleration “indicates that the economic relief measures promoted by the Bukele administration have managed to stop the price increases that occurred worldwide and that today the national market presents greater stability”, and that “this panorama favors the economic activity that is increased by the Christmas and end of the year celebrations”.

In this sense, he also mentioned that the Ombudsman’s Office will maintain controls to identify and sanction any type of abusive practices such as unjustified price increases in essential products, such as food.

“In fact, to date, the Sanctioning Court has imposed 59 fines to an equal number of businesses that have been sanctioned for a total amount of 241 thousand dollars, for the unjustified increase of prices in essential products”, stated Salazar.

Source: Diario El Salvador