07 Nov Do you buy at INE prices?
Because the price increase experienced in Bolivia during the last few months, the inflation has once again become part of the headlines. According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), the accumulated inflation (between January and September 2024) was 5.4%. Was this a lot? A little? Is it interesting? Does my mother care? Do you care?
In general, neither my mother nor many mothers in Bolivia care about that percentage, since it is “very aggregated” and “very average”. So, what you might be interested in knowing are the prices used by INE to estimate this 5.4%.
Every month, the INE professionals collect information about the “family basket” prices and based on them, calculate inflation. They do this in the nine departments across Bolivia, then add the results and publish the magic figure regarding inflation.
Without further delay, I present the prices for January and September of this year (for some products in La Paz and Santa Cruz) estimated by the INE to reach 5.4%. I didn’t put all of them . For example, in La Paz, according to the INE, in January 2024 the price of one (1) kilo of chicken meat was Bs 14.8, by September, this price increased to Bs 15.0; on the other hand, potatoes (to give another example) would have a lower price.
Source: INE
I leave to the curious reader (and probably a frequent visitor to the markets of La Paz and Santa Cruz) to compare these tables with the prices that you actually paid for these products. How far or close are they?
I wish you an excellent week.
S. Mauricio Medinaceli M.
October 27, 2024
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