Food inflation in Latin America and the Caribbean reached 8.9 percent in June compared to the same month in 2011, which means the highest so far this year. A report form the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said the increase was influenced by the rises in the annual averages of Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Mexico while food inflation was down in El Salvador and Paraguay according to a monthly report from the FAO regional office in Santiago, Chile. Meanwhile overall inflation in the region continues its descending trend and between January and June dropped from 6.9 percent to 6 percent. “The gap between annual food inflation and overall annual inflation expanded three percentage points, something not seen since April 2009″ said Raul Benitez FAO regional representative. Therefore the incidence of food inflation in the overall inflation index also was up, “from 32 percent at the end of 2011 to 38 percent in June 2012.” Mexico was the country that registered the highest increase in the region: in June the rate was above 8 percent, which was unseen since October 2009, while in Costa Rica it was 5.7 percent and Panama 9.4 percent. In El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua annual inflation both overall and in food have slowed their rhythm of growth. In South America, Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador suffered slight ascending movements, while in Chile, Colombia, Uruguay and Venezuela the trend was downwards. In Paraguay for the fourth month running the annual rate is negative for food prices, minus 1.6 percent.
