Inflation in Venezuela in June was 8.5%, the second consecutive month of acceleration after reaching the lowest point since February 2022 in April, according to data from the Venezuelan Observatory of Finance (OVF).
“The monetary expansion by the Central Bank of Venezuela puts pressure on the exchange rate and, consequently, on prices. Economic agents seek to get rid of the national currency due to the effects of past inflation and expectations of future devaluation of the bolivar,” stated the OVF in a press release.
With this result, Venezuela’s annualized inflation in May reached 429%, much higher than the figure recorded in the same month of 2022, with a year-to-date cumulative rate of 100.8%.
The sectors that experienced the largest increases were the services sector, which rose by 19.5%, driven by increases in electricity, telecommunications, and urban sanitation prices. Transportation increased by 9.1%, education by 8.0%, and food by 7%.
Data from the Central Bank of Venezuela
The Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) reported that inflation in June was 6.2%, an acceleration compared to the previous month’s figure.
With this number, the accumulated increase in prices reached 108.4%, while the annualized figure is 404.37%.
Between June 2022 and the same month of 2023, the prices that have accelerated the most are education, which has accumulated an increase of 825.9%, followed by communications with 756.8% and health with 453.7%. Meanwhile, the price of food has increased by 414.1% in the same period.
The figures show a significant acceleration of inflation that began in September 2022 and reached a monthly peak of 42.1% in January of this year. The annualized data reversed the downward trend that had been observed since the beginning of 2022, a year that ended with an inflation rate of 234%.