Cost of Living Rises for Third Month, Hitting the Coffee Region Hardest

 The rise in the CPI in September keeps inflation above 5%. Pereira, Bucaramanga, and Armenia were the hardest hit, while poor households continue to feel the greatest impact.

The cost of living increased for a third consecutive month. Following the recent DANE report, September made headlines, showing a Consumer Price Index (CPI) of 5.18% annually (compared to the same month last year).

The figure was 0.7 percentage points higher than forecast by the Fedesarrollo and Citi Research surveys, which placed the figure at 5.11%.

The Reasons

The headline inflation of 5.18% was driven by sectors with a significant impact on household spending. Restaurants and hotels (7.47%), education (7.29%), food and non-alcoholic beverages (6.21%), and healthcare (5.99%) registered variations above the national average, reflecting structural pressures on essential services and daily consumption.

At the subclass level, the rebound is explained by significant increases in transportation (9.33%), fresh fruit (13.00%), gas (12.67%), and coffee (52.46%), the latter with an extraordinary variation that drags down both household and commercial consumption.

Although there were declines in products such as potatoes, rice, and electricity, their impact was marginal compared to the weight of goods and services that did increase.