World News | Mexican inflation rises, leads to rate hike

MEXICO CITY, Feb. 10 (AP) — Mexico’s inflation rate rose to 7.91 percent in January, prompting the country’s central bank to raise its principle interest rate to 11 percent on Thursday.

Mexico’s central bank said inflation has not fallen as expected and is likely to remain elevated for some time. Inflation in Mexico is unlikely to fall to the official 3% target before late 2024 or early 2025, the bank said.

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Underlying inflation rose “surprisingly” to 8.45%, the bank said. Food has experienced 14% annualized inflation, potentially offsetting most of the announced 20% annual increase in the minimum wage through 2023.

Central bank interest rates are at their highest level since 2007. The Mexican peso rose 0.9 percent to settle at 18.77 per dollar on Thursday.

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“Global risks include a pandemic, lingering inflationary pressures, worsening geopolitical tensions, and tightening monetary and financial conditions,” the bank said in a statement. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)