Inflation in Argentina’s capital slowed to 7.1% in June from 7.5% in May, according to the city government statistics released on Friday. Inter-annual inflation in Buenos Aires is now running at 118.6%.

Prices in the capital increased 51.2% over the first half of the year.

The housing, utilities and fuel category led June’s increase with a 10.2% monthly hike, mostly due to rent raises, followed by common building expenses and electricity bills.

According to a report published last week by rental website Zonaprop, rents soared by 11.2% in June, the highest monthly increase since 2012. Palermo is the most expensive neighborhood to rent in the city, Zonaprop found, with an average monthly price of AR$205,483 (US$787 at the official rate, US$423 at the MEP rate), although that analysis excluded Puerto Madero since most rentals there are listed in U.S. dollars.

Food and non-alcoholic drinks influenced inflation the most, due to their weight on the general index, with a 5.8% monthly increase. Bread and cereals led the way with an 8.6% jump, followed by dairy products and eggs (up 8.4%).

Education was the second category that increased the most, with a 9.1% increase in June.

Consulting firm Ecolatina calculated a 7.2% inflation rate for June in Greater Buenos Aires. Despite this month’s slowdown, they are not expecting a broader deceleration. For the rest of 2023, they forecast monthly inflation to average above 7%, with the inter-annual figure hitting at least 130% for the year as a whole.

According to the company’s report, inflation will probably remain unstable due to “the absence of anchors, the distortion of relative prices, and the lack of confidence to coordinate expectations amidst the uncertainty of the electoral transition.”

They also said that the government has no margin to resort to the standard pre-election deflation toolkit such as freezing utility tariffs or slowing the rate of the devaluation against the U.S. dollar, mainly due to international reserve scarcity and the program they agreed with the International Monetary Fund .

The National Institute of Statistics and Census (INDEC, by its Spanish initials) will publish the national inflation rate for June on July 13.