In 2023, no Latin American or Caribbean country registered deflation in their average consumer prices. Costa Rica had the lowest change compared to the previous year with 0.52 percent. In contrast, the average inflation rate in Venezuela amounted to about 337.46 percent.

Latin America among the highest inflation rates in the world In 2023, the average inflation rate of the region was around 14.41 percent. Which is significantly higher than the global average of 6.78 percent. Some of that is explained by countries such as Venezuela, Argentina, and Suriname ranking in the top then of countries with the highest inflation rate in the world.

Chronic inflation in Latin America Chronic inflation is often defined as persistent high inflation throughout a long time. Some of the common examples of this problem are Venezuela and Argentina, both countries had episodes of hyperinflation, with price increases considerably over 50 percent per month in both cases. The last few years, the global crisis and economic sanctions, attenuated the situation with Argentina reaching once again three-digit inflation and Venezuela exceeding 63,000 percent inflation in 2019.

This dataset provides values for INFLATION RATE reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

This statistic shows the average inflation rate in Latin America and the Caribbean from 2020 to 2024, with projections up until 2030. In 2024, the average inflation rate in Latin America and the Caribbean amounted to about 16.56 percent compared to the previous year.

Graph and download economic data for Inflation, consumer prices: All Income Levels for Latin America and Caribbean (FPCPITOTLZGLCN) from 1967 to 2024 about Caribbean Economies, Latin America, consumer prices, consumer, income, and inflation.

The average for 2025 based on 20 countries was 18.78 percent. The highest value was in Venezuela: 254.35 percent and the lowest value was in Panama: 0.7 percent. The indicator is available from 1980 to 2030. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

Historical chart and dataset showing Latin America & Caribbean inflation rate by year from 1967 to 2023.

Food price inflation in Latin America and the Caribbean reached 77.62 percent in December 2024 compared to the same month the previous year. The surge in food prices has significant implications for household budgets and food security throughout Latin America. Regional variations and contributing factors While the overall trend shows a sharp increase in food prices, there are notable differences among countries in the region. Venezuela and Argentina consistently rank among the nations with the highest food price inflation, while Panama and Ecuador have experienced relatively lower rates. The consumer price index for food in Latin America and the Caribbean jumped from 425.38 points in June 2023 to 1,223.53 points in June 2024, representing an increase of over 158 percent. This rapid escalation in food costs has put considerable strain on consumers across the region. Global context and consumer impact The food price inflation crisis in Latin America is part of a broader global trend. Zimbabwe, for instance, recorded the highest level of real food inflation worldwide between December 2023 and April 2024, with a 46 percent increase compared to the previous year. Argentina followed with a 20 percent increase. The impact on consumers is significant, with many finding it increasingly difficult to afford healthy and sustainable food options. In Argentina, 62 percent of respondents reported difficulty in purchasing such foods due to a lack of affordability, an increase of 7 percentage points from 2021. Similar challenges were observed in other Latin American countries, including Peru, where the share of respondents reporting difficulties rose from 19 percent to 25 percent between 2021 and 2023.

Graph and download economic data for Inflation, consumer prices for Developing Countries in Latin America and Caribbean (FPCPITOTLZGLAC) from 1960 to 2023 about Caribbean Economies, Latin America, consumer prices, consumer, and inflation.

In December 2024, the country with the highest food price inflation compared to the same month of the previous year in Latin America and the Caribbean was Argentina, with an inflation rate of ***** percent. Ranking second was Haiti, with ***** percent. In contrast, Suriname was the only country in the region where the inflation rate decreased by **** percent.

Inflation, consumer prices: All Income Levels for Latin America and Caribbean was 4.63% in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, Inflation, consumer prices: All Income Levels for Latin America and Caribbean reached a record high of 22.95 in January of 1974 and a record low of 1.38 in January of 2020. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Inflation, consumer prices: All Income Levels for Latin America and Caribbean - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on August of 2025.

As the source explains, changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) measure the rate of inflation for a group of retail products and services related to household spending. Between June 2023 and June 2024, Education was the sector that experienced the largest price increase, with an inflation rate that totaled 6.93 percent. On the other hand, the inflation rate of communications stood at 1.03 percent in June 2024 compared to the same month of the previous year, the second lowest rate among all groups.

This data package includes the underlying data and files to replicate the calculations, charts, and tables presented in Inflation Targets in Latin America, PIIE Working Paper 19-19.

If you use the data, please cite as: De Gregorio, José. (2019). Inflation Targets in Latin America. PIIE Working Paper 19-19. Peterson Institute for International Economics.

In December 2024, the average consumer price index (CPI) for food in Latin America and the Caribbean amounted to ******** points. In contrast, a year earlier, this value was of ******. This represents an increase of over ** percent. That month, the countries with the highest food CPI included Venezuela and Argentina. The countries with some of the lowest food price inflation included Panama and Ecuador.

In December 2024, the consumer price index (CPI) in Latin America and the Caribbean amounted to ***** points. In contrast, a year earlier, this value stood at ***. This represents an increase of about ** percent.

ABSTRACT This paper aims to evaluate the performance of the monetary policy of inflation targeting regime in the Latin America countries from 2001 to 2014, with monthly data. For this purpose, a VEC model (vector error correction) is applied to running data to analyze the long-term function and the impulse response function. The results pointed out that the adoption of the target system has contributed to reduce the inflation rate and its volatility and the fluctuations in the rate of growth in activity level. The estimated parameters of the long-term speed of adjustment of the price index have indicated strong reaction by the monetary authorities to change inflation rate via short-term interest rate. These adjustments are also noted in the level of activity and the exchange rate for most countries, but with less level of speed. The impulse response function confirmed these results. Therefore, the monetary policy was effective to control inflation, especially in Peru, Colombia and Chile. In Brazil and Mexico, the effectiveness of monetary policy has only been observed more recently.

The inflation rate for both Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America and the Caribbean reached more than 12 percent in 2023. Among the provided continents or regions, Asia and the Pacific had the lowest inflation rate that year. Consumer prices increased around the world following the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Inflation and food security Increases in food costs are one of the most prominent impacts of inflation globally. In the United Kingdom, for example, consumers have indicated that they have worried more about food costs in 2023 than in previous years. Meanwhile, in Canada, only a small fraction of survey respondents have said that inflation has had little impact on household food costs. Consumers have responded to rising food costs through various coping mechanisms. For example, Italian consumers have indicated that they purchase less unnecessary products, cut down on waste, and buy more discounted items in order to save costs. Changing consumer behvaiors Outside of food consumption, consumers have changed their purchasing behaviors with other types of goods and services. Surveying has indicated that nearly 60 percent of consumers have adjusted their shopping habits due to inflation. When holiday shopping in 2023, over 50 percent of Americans and over one third of British consumers said inflation had considerable impact on their holiday shopping. By generation, the Millenial generation has suffered the most due to rising inflation, while older generations have experienced less serious impacts.

La moyenne pour 2023 était de 7.1 pour cent. La valeur la plus élevée était au Haïti: 36.8 pour cent et la valeur la plus basse était au Costa Rica: 0.5 pour cent. Vous trouverez ci-dessous un graphique pour tous les pays où les données sont disponibles.

ABSTRACT This paper argues that several aspects of the productive structure and the macroeconomic policies of Latin American countries, when combined with a Taylor Rule, may produce too much output volatility and a bias towards real exchange rate overvaluation. Relaying on a simple Aggregate Demand - Aggregate Supply model, we show that this is a likely outcome when: a) the real interest rate elasticity of demand is low; b) depreciations have strong contractionary effects; and c) the exchange rate pass-through is relatively large. These conditions imply that depreciations are contractionary and a have a strong effect on inflation.

Der Durchschnitt für 2024 betrug 4.7 Prozent, bei einem Höchstwert von 26.9 Prozent (Haiti) und einem Minimum von -0.4 Prozent (Costa Rica). Unten befindet sich ein Diagramm für alle Länder, in denen Daten zum Themazur Verfügung stehen.

We provide the data used for this research in both Excel (one file with one matrix per sheet, 'Allmatrices.xlsx'), and CSV (one file per matrix).

Patent applications (Patent_applications.csv) Patent applications from residents and no residents per million inhabitants. Data obtained from the World Development Indicators database (World Bank 2020). Normalization by the number of inhabitants was made by the authors.

High-tech exports (High-tech_exports.csv) The proportion of exports of high-level technology manufactures from total exports by technology intensity, obtained from the Trade Structure by Partner, Product or Service-Category database (Lall, 2000; UNCTAD, 2019)

Expenditure on education (Expenditure_on_education.csv) Per capita government expenditure on education, total (2010 US$). The data was obtained from the government expenditure on education (total % of GDP), GDP (constant 2010 US$), and population indicators of the World Development Indicators database (World Bank 2020). Normalization by the number of inhabitants was made by the authors.

Scientific publications (Scientific_publications.csv) Scientific and technical journal articles per million inhabitants. The data were obtained from the scientific and technical journal articles and population indicators of the World Development Indicators database (World Bank 2020). Normalization by the number of inhabitants was made by the authors.

Expenditure on R&D (Expenditure_on_R&D.csv) Expenditure on research and development. Data obtained from the research and development expenditure (% of GDP), GDP (constant 2010 US$), and population indicators of the World Development Indicators database (World Bank 2020). Normalization by the number of inhabitants was made by the authors.

Two centuries of GDP (GDP_two_centuries.csv) GDP per capita that accounts for inflation. Data obtained from the Maddison Project Database, version 2018 (Inklaar et al. 2018), and available from the Open Numbers community (open-numbers.github.io).

Inklaar, R., de Jong, H., Bolt, J., & van Zanden, J. (2018). Rebasing “Maddison”: new income comparisons and the shape of long-run economic development (GD-174; GGDC Research Memorandum). https://www.rug.nl/research/portal/files/53088705/gd174.pdf

Lall, S. (2000). The Technological Structure and Performance of Developing Country Manufactured Exports, 1985‐98. Oxford Development Studies, 28(3), 337–369. https://doi.org/10.1080/713688318

Unctad. 2019. “Trade Structure by Partner, Product or Service-Category.” 2019. https://unctadstat.unctad.org/EN/.

World Bank. (2020). World Development Indicators. https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators