The most expensive and cheapest cities in Colombia, according to the DANE inflation report

The shortage has been one of the biggest complaints of Colombians these days. Food, for example, has exceeded the prices it was on the market until a few months ago. In fact, today, Wednesday, April 6, Twitter ranks second among relevant topics in the country the hashtag 'It's very expensive'. Earlier this year, Dane, the National Administrative Department of Statistics, revealed that Santa Marta was one of the places in the country that had increased its cost of living the most. Its residents said they had greater difficulty meeting their economic needs.

According to Dane, Santa Marta was the most expensive city of 2021 in Colombia, with inflation of 8.99%, followed by Cucuta with 8.69% and Popayán with 8.42%. In February of this year, however, the same entity pointed out that Ibague, Riohacha and Pereira were the three cities in Colombia where the cost of living grew the most, this taking into account the monthly change in the CPI of January 2022. According to Juan Daniel Oviedo, director of Dane, eight cities remained below the monthly average, including Bogotá, which ranked fourth, behind Medellín (1.60%), Valledupar (1.60%), Santa Marta (1.59%); and ahead, Sincelejo (1.48%), Cartagena (1.31%) and Pasto (1.29%).

For March 2022, the annual change in CPI was 8.53%, according to the same body, that is, 7.02 percentage points higher than that reported in the same period last year, when it was 1.51%. According to the most recent reports from that authority, Medellin is the city with the highest cost of living in the country at 1.46%, then Valledupar with 1.35% and Cucuta with 1.34%. Bogotá, for its part, is the city that would have been least affected by this number, as it reached 0.76%, above Pereira with 0.77% and Sincelejo with 0.89%.

“In March 2022, and compared to February of the same year, Medellín (1.45%) was the city with the highest variation in CPI. Compared to March 2021, Santa Marta recorded the highest variation with 12.63% and Bogotá the lowest (7.34%),” emphasizes Dane on its social networks. “According to income levels, the CPI registered the greatest annual variations for the poor (10.46%) and vulnerable (10.35%) groups,” the full report also highlights.

In terms of food and non-alcoholic beverage costs, there was an annual variation of 25.37%. By March 2022, the largest price increases were recorded in the subclasses potatoes (110.22%), cassava (85.14%) and bananas (82.57%). The lowest price increases were reported in the subclasses rice (0.54%), arracacha, yams and other tubers (0.83%). “The costs of chemicals for the production of detergents bar soap and dish soap are also showing increases that are being passed on to end users,” said the director of Dane.

“The peak of inflation would occur in March and from there a gradual reduction begins, but still quite high. We are going to have high inflation throughout the year due to the recent high production costs,” Scotiabank Colpatria's chief economist, Sergio Olarte, told the public opinion. The expert was joined by Carlos Ronderos, former Minister of Commerce, who explained that inflation at the end of this year could be around 7% or 8%. “I don't see the measures announced by the government in the short term as being as effective,” he said.

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