Inflation in Venezuela rises to 4% in July, 1.6% more than in June, according to OVF

Caracas, Aug 6 (EFE).- Venezuela recorded inflation of 4% in July, which means an increase of 1.6% compared to the previous monthwhen it was 2.4%, according to the Venezuelan Financial Observatory (OVF), an independent entity outside the Central Bank (BCV), which has not yet published official data for last month.

Although the OVF estimates that June’s price increase averaged 2.4%, the official figure – supplied by the issuing body – was 1%, which was considered by the Government as an unequivocal sign of economic recovery and currency stabilization, which registered historic depreciations in the previous decade.

Pending official data for July, inflation of 1% in June was, according to historical data from the BCV, the lowest in the last 12 years.

The figure also represented the lowest figure for a month of June in 39 years, according to President Nicolás Maduro.

According to the observatory, inflation accumulated during the first seven months of the year reached 22%, while the issuing body, pending the July report, maintains that the rates of goods and services increased by 8.9% during the first half of the year.

The OVF – made up of economic experts – detailed that, in July, the sectors most affected by inflation were services (8.7%), household equipment (5.1%) and alcoholic beverages and tobacco (3.9%).

Likewise, the highest inflation rate last month was recorded in Caracas, with a variation of 5%, followed by the island state of Nueva Esparta with 4.2%, Anzoátegui (northeast) with 3.9% and Zulia (northwest) with 2.9%.

According to the organization, the increase in inflation in July “is explained both by the nominal depreciation of the bolivar against the dollar (3.4%) and by the increase in public service rates, especially urban cleaning (16.9%) at the national level,” just in the month in which the country held presidential elections.

Venezuela emerged in December 2021 from a hyperinflation that it entered in 2017 and that, for four years, reduced the value of the bolivar, the official currency, as well as the confidence of citizens in it, so they unofficially adopted the dollar in an attempt to protect their income, even more stable in local currency during the last year.

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