By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF

Despite the fact that Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) promised that inflation would be kept at a maximum of 3.4 percent rate in 2019, overall price increases for the first half of March shot up to 3.95 percent, according to the National Consumer Price Index (INCO), a subdivision of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi).

The jump in national inflation, which also increased in February to 3.89 percent from a relatively stable 3 percent average since January 2017 (the ideal inflation goal set by the Bank of Mexico), was mainly a result of a rise in the costs for gasoline, domestic-use natural gas and certain agricultural products, such as limes and tomatoes, the INEGI said in a report issued on Friday, March 22.

The states registering the highest increase in inflation rates were Jalisco, Baja California Sur and Tlaxcala, the report said, while prices remained unchanged in the northern state of Tamaulipas and relatively stable in Guerrero, the State of Mexico (Edoméx), Morelos and San Luis Potosí

In response to the new numbers from Inegi, Banxico senior economist Juan Carlos Alderete said that if the government can hold prices down throughout the rest of the year, overall inflation for 2019 could be as low as 3.5 percent.