Argentina's monthly inflation slowed to an average of 1.9% in the third quarter of 2026 despite rising global energy and food prices, the country's central bank said.
That was 0.3 percentage point below the previous quarter, the Central Bank of Argentina said. The Bank for International Settlements published “Opening remarks - Monetary Policy Report (IPOM) press conference, third quarter of 2026” on Nov. 10.
The remarks covered inflation and economic activity through the third quarter, alongside international developments through October. The central bank said inflation had reached its lowest level in ten years, attributing the decline to its fiscal and monetary framework.
The central bank's underlying inflation measure, which tracks broader price trends, averaged 2% a month during the quarter. That was 0.1 percentage point below the second quarter and 0.3 percentage point below the first-half average, the central bank said.
The improvement concentrated in goods, where underlying prices rose 1.7% a month, the central bank said. Packaged food and non-alcoholic beverage prices increased 1.8% monthly, down 0.5 percentage point from the previous quarter, while underlying services inflation rose to 2.7%.
Fuel and lubricant prices rose an average of 0.8% a month, compared with 4.6% in the second quarter, the central bank said. It attributed much of the slowdown in regulated prices to that change.
The central bank said a 0.5 percentage point increase in annual inflation reflected the comparison with prices a year earlier. It identified seasonal beef price increases, reduced gas subsidies and the October effect of late-September gasoline increases as temporary risks.
Even so, the central bank expected fiscal and monetary policy, together with less persistence in price and wage increases, to bring inflation down. Participants in its Market Expectations Survey projected monthly inflation below 2% in coming months and annual inflation of 30% at year-end.
The economy contracted 0.6% in the second quarter from the previous three months after seasonal adjustments, but grew 2% from a year earlier, the central bank said. It attributed the quarterly fall to farming activity returning from record harvests and a less favorable international environment.
Growth reached 1.2% in the first eight months compared with the same period of 2025, the central bank said. It expected a fourth-quarter recovery as agricultural comparisons normalized and temporary disruptions, including interruptions to industrial natural gas supplies, faded.
Exports rose 2.5% in the second quarter after seasonal adjustments and 13.7% from a year earlier, reaching a record, the central bank said. It identified sustained growth in oil and lithium shipments as the main longer-term force behind record export volumes over the past twelve months.
