Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

Despite an obvious increase in the price of products over the past several months, especially food, Peru has a considerably low inflation rate, said experts.

According to Renan Quispe, the head of Peru's National Statistics Institute (INEI), Peru has one of the lowest inflation rates in the region.

Quispe assured it was not surprising that the Andean nation's consumer price index rose 1.19 percent in March, stating that inflation was much lower than countries such as Venezuela or Bolivia.

Inflation in Metropolitan Lima has increased 5.55 percent over the past 12 months, said Quispe, citing a study carried out by INEI.

He assured that this was much lower than Venezuela's inflation rate, registered at 29.10 percent and Bolivia's, registered at 14.08 percent.

These two countries are followed by Argentina (8.81%), Chile (8.51%) and Ecuador (6.56%).

According to the INEI study, the only two countries in the region ahead of Peru were Brazil and Mexico, with inflation rates as low as 4.73 and 4.25 percent respectively.

Peru's Central Reserve bank explained that inflation was currently a global phenomenon, stating that it was being fueled by an increase in the cost of imported products such as maize, soy, oil and petroleum.