Food prices, which marked inflation in the past months, had the opposite effect in October and now the National Bureau of Statistics and Population Census (INEC) records a monthly inflation of -0.18 percent at the national level. In Quito alone, inflation was 0.01 percent.

The accumulated inflation from January to October is 1.73 percent, and the annual inflation is 1.93 percent. These three indicators are lower than those from October 2022, when monthly inflation was 0.12%, accumulated inflation was 3.58%, and annual inflation was 4.02%.

Of the annual inflation of 1.93 percent, food and soft drinks account for 1.73 percent. While only last October, these products continue to have a greater impact on the general price increase indicator, but this time downwards.

Therefore, INEC lists ten foods with the highest frequency:

The food and non-alcoholic beverages sector consists of 115 products and represents 22.45% of the weighting of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) basket.

“This division is sensitive to price changes due to climatic phenomena, seasonal production among others,” explained INEC in its monthly report released this Wednesday, November 8.

The products with the highest impact in the health sector also have negative numbers:

The health department consists of 26 products and represents 7.34% of the weighting of the Consumer Price Index basket.

In terms of clothing and footwear, these are the products with the greatest impact on monthly inflation in October:

This clothing and footwear division contains 44 products and represents 7.69% of the weighting of the CPI basket. The nine remaining consumer divisions together have an incidence of 0.0022% for the month of October 2023.

Mild negative effects also exist in other areas such as communications, recreation and culture, restaurants and hotels, furniture and household items, and education. And on the contrary, slight upward effects in transport; various goods and services; accommodation, water, electricity, etc., as well as alcoholic beverages and tobacco.

The last time negative inflation was recorded was in November 2022: -0.01%. The next ten months saw widespread price increases that went from 0.02% reported last February to 0.54% in July, according to official INEC data.

Inflation by city

Of the nine cities monitored by INEC, only the capital has no negative inflation in October.

According to Jose Andrade, a researcher associated with the Ecuadorian Institute of Political Economy (IEEP), this particular reduction in the CPI in Ecuador could respond to some fear among citizens, who limit their spending due to insecurity and avoid being on the streets. a little longer than necessary. In this way, companies and in general part of the economic activity are affected and even respond to some variations of a seasonal nature.

However, Andrade says, it is important to emphasize that price variations in the economy are part of how it works, since the conditions that lead to price increases change, because people’s behavior is variable.

The researcher points out that to understand this negative result, we must start with the fact that prices within any economy correspond to certain and specific market conditions, and of course in case of any change or modification of the aforementioned conditions, prices change. express this new reality.

“These changes usually reflect changes or modifications in the behavior and/or preferences of consumers who, for various reasons, demand more or less of a set of products contained within the basket of goods used to calculate the retail price index. consumer. Likewise, they could reflect shocks of a technological or climatic nature,” he claims.