Argentina's famous beef cattle would have emerged as one of the main drivers of inflation in February, JPMorgan Chase & Co. wrote in a note on Wednesday.
The bank raised its consumer price forecast for that month to 3.9 percent from 3.2 percent. The main culprit, according to JPMorgan analysts Lucila Barbeito and Diego Pereira, is red meat, with prices that surprised the rise last month.
After rising to 6.7 percent in January, red meat prices in Argentina are expected to rise another 7 percent in February, according to Barbeito and Pereira. Increases in regulated prices in the public transportation and service accounts also affected inflation.
Meat prices are rising as producers and distributors seek to recover losses after inflation soared in 2018. Elypsis, a consultancy based in Buenos Aires, had also projected that red meat would raise overall inflation in February to a maximum of 4 percent.
Barbeito and Pereira increased their projection for annual inflation in Argentina in 2019 to 31.2 percent, citing factors that include an increase in salaries. The National Institute of Statistics and Censuses of Argentina will publish the official inflation data for February on March 14.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://csprime.rf.gd/jpmorgan-blames-argentinas-red-meat-for-rising-inflation/