MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican inflation slowed in the first half of April, reaching its lowest level in a year and a half, the national statistics agency said Monday.
Annual headline inflation through mid-April hit 6.24%, the lowest since the first half of October 2021, when the rate was 6.12%, further declining from the 17-month low of 6.85% hit across March.
Core inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy products, stood at 7.75% in the year through early April.
A Reuters poll of analysts had projected headline inflation at 6.28% in the month’s first half, and core inflation at 7.78%.
Though above the Bank of Mexico’s target of 3%, plus or minus a percentage point, Monday’s rate fuels expectations the central bank may have completed a long cycle of interest rate hikes.
Banxico, as Mexico’s central bank is known, will make its next monetary policy announcement on May 18.
The bank’s board voted to raise the benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 11.25% in late March, with board members striking a more dovish tone on the future of rate moves.
Banxico has raised the interest rate by 725 basis points since June 2021 to combat inflation.
(Reporting by Natalia Siniawski and Brendan O’Boyle; editing by Barbara Lewis)
