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<h1 class="reader-title">Bolivia Has The Lowest Inflation in
Latin America<br>
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December 2, 2021</div>
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<p>Bolivia’s accumulated inflation for 2021 is just 0.54%,
says<a
href="https://ibce.org.bo/publicaciones-ibcecifras-pdf.php?id=994">
a new report</a> by the Bolivian Institute for Foreign
Trade (IBCE), a private research center. Meanwhile, the
regional average, according to the IMF, has reached 9.3%
across Latin America. </p>
<p>Bolivia’s 0.54% is in stark contrast to Central Bank
figures of its neighbors, such as Chile (6.5%),
Argentina (41.8%), Brazil (8.24%), Peru (5.23%), and
Paraguay (6.23%).</p>
<p>The report found that the sector with the highest
inflation was private education (5.8%), but that food
and drink costs were up just 0.59% during 2021. Public
transport is up 0.39%. The city with the highest
inflation was Cobija with a record of 4.12%, followed by
Trinidad 0.92%, Santa Cruz 0.88%, La Paz 0.57%, and
Cochabamba with 0.3%. </p>
<p>President Luis Arce is an economist by profession whose
area of expertise is monetary policy,<a
href="https://www.lostiempos.com/actualidad/pais/20200205/luis-arce-retoma-docencia-carrera-economia-umsa">
a class he taught</a> at the Universidad Mayor de San
Andres (UMSA) in La Paz, the country’s leading public
university. </p>
<p>Since the return of democracy in November 2020,
President Arce has focused on supply-side measures such
as infrastructure spending and the reactivation of state
companies such as the fertilizer plant in Bulo Bulo,
food processing plants across the country, and EMAPA
which guarantees supply chains in the production of
basic foodstuffs. </p>
<p>Last month, when markets announced a rise in the price
of beef, EMAPA responded by announcing that they would
begin selling beef at a ‘fair price’ which prompted a
correction in prices. Director of EMAPA, Franklin
Flores, <a
href="https://www.atb.com.bo/sociedad/emapa-comercializar%C3%A1-carne-vendedores-y-consumidores">stated
in October</a> that, “We will begin to sell beef in
the different distribution points that EMAPA has, such
as supermarkets, and also directly with the retail
marketers and the market sellers for whom the price from
wholesalers has been getting more expensive, we will
distribute it at a fair price”.</p>
<p>During the coup, all state companies were closed, a
move that threatened the country’s food sovereignty and
may well have triggered inflation had the regime not
fallen within less than a year. Nevertheless, President
Luis Arce has been able to rebuild Bolivia’s state-led
economic model, a model which since 2006 has led to a
situation in which Bolivia <a
href="https://www.nodal.am/2017/07/bolivia-produce-95-los-alimentos-consumen-segun-ministerio-desarrollo-rural-tierras/#:~:text=Director%3A%20Pedro%20Brieger-,Bolivia%20produce%20el%2095%25%20de%20los%20alimentos%20que%20consume%2C%20seg%C3%BAn,el%20Ministerio%20de%20Desarrollo%20Rural&text=Bolivia%20produce%20el%2095%25%20de%20los%20alimentos%20que%20consume%20y,Rural%20y%20Tierras%2C%20C%C3%A9sar%20Cocarico.">produces
95% of what it consumes in food</a>, providing crucial
protection from external shocks and supply chain
disruptions. </p>
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