The Day at a Glance | January 9 2023

*Inflation in Mexico set at 7.82% at the end of 2022.

*Joe Biden arrived to Mexico City on Sunday night for the North American Leaders Summit. Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, will arrive on Monday. The summit is expected to focus on regional integration and migration. 

*Brazilian police were able to regain control of the country`s Congress, Supreme Court and Presidential palace after extremist Bolsonaro supporters` attack.

*After fifteen voting rounds, Kevin McCarthy was elected as US House Speaker in the US on Saturday.

*After 3 years, China reopened its land and sea border crossings with Hong Kong and eliminated quarantine measures for incoming travelers.

Economic environment

Core inflation slowed down for the first time since November of 2020. General inflation in December logged a 7.82% annual rate; a marginal increase with respect to November`s 7.80% and set below the 7.84% estimated by the consensus. In a disaggregated manner, there was a moderation in the core component, which decreased from 8.51% to 8.35%, marking the first change in trend since November of 2020. Simultaneously, the goods and services sub-indexes showed the same trend as they logged 11.09% and 5.19% annual figures. However, the increasing trend seen in foods, beverages and tobacco (which the central bank`s Governing Board has highlighted as the main source of higher prices) continued through December; they logged a 14.14% increase (14.09% prev.). At a core level, the annual hike set at 6.27%, a slight increase from the previous 5.73% in light of higher agricultural prices (9.52%), especially because of fruits and vegetables, which increased 7.22%. Monthly figures show a similar trend (general 0.38%), as price pressures were seen in core inflation (0.65% from a previous 0.45% logged in November) due to food prices (0.89%). Negative monthly figures were recorded in non-core inflation (-0.40%) due to a drop in energy prices (-1.15%) – even despite an increase in agricultural goods (0.50%). With this, the risks of prices maintaining an upwards trend continues in light of high prices of goods, even though December`s figures showed signs that core inflation is starting to cool down.