Inflation in Panama accumulated 1.5% in 2023

The inflation rate in Panama ended December 2023 with an accumulated annual rate of 1.5%, bringing the year-on-year rate to 1.9%, driven by increases in the prices of services and education, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Census (Inec) published this Tuesday.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) recorded an increase of 0.1% in December 2023 compared to the previous month, driven by an increase in the restaurant and hotel groups (1%); food and soft drinks (0.5%); alcoholic beverages and tobacco (0.3%); various goods and services (0.2%) and housing, water, electricity and gas (0.1%).

The year-on-year variation of 1.9% in December 2023 was driven by a 9.9% increase in the housing, water, electricity and gas groups; education (3.7%); various goods and services (3.6%); food and soft drinks (2.4%); alcoholic beverages and tobacco (2.3%); restaurants and hotels (2.1%); health (1.3%); and transportation (1.1%).

In January last year, Inec explained that the end of the extraordinary subsidy on the price of electricity due to the effect of the covid-19 pandemic that month raised the CPI in the class of electricity by 39.6%, one of the 8 that make up the housing, water, electricity and gas group .

And this year 2024 started with an increase in electricity prices, between 2% and 15%, which is expected to affect inflation this year, which according to the forecasts of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs will reach 2.2% .

Inflation in Panama ended 2022 with an annual variation of 2.1% and a cumulative variation between January and December of 2.9%, while it was 2.6% and 1.6% in 2021, respectively.

The results of recent years contrast with a variation of -1.6% in 2020, a year of almost complete economic paralysis due to the pandemic, -0.4% accumulated between January and December 2019 and 0.8% in 2018, according to official data.