Overview
- Official data show prices rose 0.60% nationwide and 0.69% in Lima in February, the steepest February reading since 2008 versus a 0.27% historical average.
- Food and non‑alcoholic beverages were the main driver, contributing 0.43 percentage points to the monthly total as food prices jumped 1.71%.
- Intense rains, landslides, flooding and crop disease constrained supply and lifted costs across staples, with chicken up 9%, eggs 18% and peas roughly doubling.
- Scotiabank reports Lima’s annual inflation increased to 2.2% and core inflation edged higher, with goods inflation rising to 3.6% while services ticked to 1.1%.
- Scotiabank cautions that March could see added pressure from a gas‑supply disruption affecting about 1,000 firms in Cusco, seasonal education costs and higher oil, and it expects a policy pause this month.