Increases in water and electricity rates fueled inflation last year

Regulated goods justify their rising in operating costs and improvements

January 2013 showed an increase in prices of 1.31%

Changes in the price of electricity, water and municipal services are among those responsible for the direction taken by inflation over the 12 months between February 2012 and January 2013.

This follows from the analysis of data released yesterday by the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC), which shows that the assets of the group called "Rental housing and services" are those for which a greater degree, by 40% Inflation in the last 12 months, he accumulated a 5.74% January 1.

Other important groups within the CPI calculation were "Food and non-alcoholic", which meant 15% of the index, transport (13%), education (8%) and "Food and drinks outside the home" (8%) , among others.

Inflation, estimated by the consumer price index (CPI) is calculated based on the price changes of 12 groups of goods and services, which in turn have a different weight, that is, some have more influence than others.

For this reason, most price changes are not necessarily a good impact equally in the calculation.

The increases. Services of electricity and water have the common feature that they are regulated goods.

For it is decreed an increase in any of these services, you need the approval of the Regulatory Authority for Public Services (Aresep).

Carolina Mora, a spokeswoman for the regulator said that increases in the last 12 months have been justified by operating expenses or improvements that implement the companies providing public services.

Mora said that the increases in electricity are due to two reasons: the operating costs of the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) and the cost of thermal generation.

"In recent years increased thermal generation, which is six times more expensive than water," the official of the Aresep.

In the case of water, the greatest increase was in the sanitation rate, in order to generate sufficient income for the works that have not been done in the last 30 years.

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