MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican central bank board member Jonathan Heath forecast core inflation in Mexico should peak some time in the first quarter and begin a “not so fast” downward trajectory from there.
Heath said in a podcast published on Wednesday by Mexican bank Banorte that inflation should conclude 2022 very close to 4% and should converge “much closer” to the Bank of Mexico’s 3% target by mid-2023.
Mexican headline inflation eased slightly to 7.13% in early January from the last half of December, still more than double the central bank’s target rate of 3%, while a measure of core inflation accelerated to its highest in over 20 years.
“This inflation bubble, I think we can properly name it pandemic inflation, arises precisely in the wake of the pandemic, which has caused all the disruptions in value chains globally,” said Heath.
(Reporting by Miguel Angel Gutierrez and Ana Isabel Martinez; Writing by Valentine Hilaire; editing by Barbara Lewis)
