Monthly inflation in Argentina was 4% in July, a report by the INDEC statistics bureau showed. The number represented 0.6 points less than the previous month and is the lowest mark in the Milei era.

Yearly inflation ticked down eight points to 263.4% in July. Meanwhile, prices rose 87% during the first seven months of the year.

Monthly inflation numbers increased primarily in the hotels and restaurants sector, which surged at 6.5%. Alcoholic beverages and tobacco were next with 6.1%, driven by an increase in the price of cigarettes. Right below were housing and utilities (6%), boosted by a price hike in rentals and water fees.

Consulting firms that answered the Central Bank’s market expectations survey published at the beginning of July said, on average, that July’s monthly inflation would be 3.9%. This was roughly the same as the actual number. 

“Our hypothesis is that inflation is, at all times and in all places, a monetary phenomenon. In order to end that burden, we have to end money issuance,” President Javier Milei said earlier on Wednesday at the Council of the Americas conference in Buenos Aires’ Alvear Palace Hotel.

Milei blamed Alberto Fernández’s administration for the inflation crisis, claiming that his government issued money equivalent to “13% of the GDP.” He also said that the wholesale inflation in December was 54%, and that by June it had come down to 2.7%. Milei also attempted an annual projection saying that inflation went down from 17,000% to 35% a year. However, analysts agree that most of that spike in December was due to the Argentine peso devaluation carried out by Milei.

Still, the president went even further and said that if you subtract the 2% monthly crawling peg — the government’s gradual devaluation of the peso since December — the annual inflation rate is actually 8%. 

“Thanks, Toto,” he said to Economy Minister Luis “Toto” Caputo, who was sitting in the audience.

The INDEC also published June’s salary index, which measures the evolution of wages. According to the report, salaries grew by 216.3% compared to the same month of the previous year, while inflation during the same period was 271.5%. This means that, from June 2023 to June 2024, Argentines lost, on average, 60 percentage points of their purchasing power.

A press release by the Economy Ministry stated that these numbers are “consistent with a deepening of the disinflation process.”