Inflation drops 0.4% during February

SANTIAGO.- The Insituto Nacional de Estadísticas (INE) announced today that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) registered a drop of -0.4% during February. The figure represents the most significant decrease for the month in 17 years.

The number indicates that the CPI is continuing the downward trend that began during the end of 2008, with a 12-month variation of 5.5%.

The decline during February can be attributed to changes in the indexes of Various Goods and Services (-11.2%) and Non-Alcoholic Food and Drink (-1.4%). The decreases within these sectors were however, partially countered by increases in Transportation (1.3%) and Housing, Water, Electricity and other Fuels (0.7%).

The market had estimated that inflation would fall only 0.1% during the second month of 2009.

In January of this year, the CPI registered a historic plunge of 0.8%, which was the lowest figure for the month in 66 years. Meanwhile, internal prices grew by 0.4% during February of 2008.

For 2009, the Central Bank has predicted an annual inflation rate of 3.1%.