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Family of four ate with S/ 840 in a month, now it is not enough

Family of four ate with S/ 840 in a month, now it is not enough

Arequipa. After the toughest times of COVID-19, Rebeca returned to sell vegetables to the commercial platform Andres Avelino Caceres as a wanderer Since he did it he has noticed a big change. “People buy more measured amounts and are mostly looking for cheap,” he says.

For Rebeca, the reason is that, in the year 2022, prices were constantly rising. Hydrangea, who does her shopping weekly, calculates that she now spends 30 soles a day to cover breakfast, lunch and dinner for the 4 members of her family, which costs S/ 210 a week and S/ 840 a month. “And that is the basics, without many tastes that one wants to indulge in,” she says.

Before, in 2019, with that approximate amount of money, he covered the expenses of the 15-day market.

The economist Y teacher of the San Pablo Catholic University, Manuel Bedregal Salas, points out that those hardest hit by the rise in the price of food products are citizens with lower incomes. The reason is that a high component of the consumption basket of the poorest is food. For this reason, says Bedregal, a person who earns the minimum wage eats 30 to 40% of their income, and even more depending on their family burden.

According to data provided by the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI) nationwide, until 2021, a food basket for a family of 4 members cost 804 soles per month.

According to the same entity, for a family of 4 members to be considered non-poor and cover their food expenses, they must have an income of 1,700 soles.

Inflation in Peru and Arequipa

INEI has recently announced that the country, in the year 2022, has registered the highest inflation in the last 26 years: it was 8.56%.

In Arequipa, the level of inflation was even higher than the national one. Silvia Pacheco, departmental director of the INEI in Arequipa, explained that the percentage variation of the consumer price index accumulated up to December was 9.47%, that is, almost 1% higher than the national one.

“If we analyze that same data from the years 2018 to 2021, that of 2022 is the highest accumulated inflation recorded in the last 5 years,” said Pacheco.

And if these data are taken to an analysis with respect to the other regions, Arequipa It is among the 7 most expensive cities in the country.

If only the month of December 2022 is considered, the increase was 0.63%.

According to Pacheco, the variation occurred mainly in the division of consumption of alcoholic beverages, tobacco and narcotics, which grew by 3.14%, followed by the group of accommodation, water, electricity, gas and other fuels with a variation of 2.32% and then food and non-alcoholic beverages with 1.18%.

Another piece of information that shows the strong increase in food in the markets is that, if the prices of the consumer division of food and non-alcoholic beverages are compared, from December 2021 to December 2022, the variation was 17.50%.

External factors

The economist Manuel Bedregal points out that the causes for the sharp increase in food are the delays of the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the fact that it brought problems with world maritime cargo and international logistics. Another reason is conflict Russia – Ukraine which triggered the increase in the price of commodities such as oil, gas, some cereals such as wheat. “Peru is a net importer of oil, which is why the rise in fuel prices in the world has affected us a lot,” he explained.

According to Bedregal, the internal causes for the price increase are minimal. For example, the social conflict that took place in December and that caused the lack of some products. As until now the supply of propane gas has not been regularized. This brought with it readjustment in the price of the product.

Source: Larepublica

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