MEXICO CITY, Jan 20 - Mexican annual inflation likely continued to slow in the first two weeks of January, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday, part of a sustained deceleration since inflation hit a 20-year high at the end of November in 2021.
The consensus forecast among 11 analysts polled by Reuters was for inflation to tick down to 7.13% in the first half of January from 7.26% in the second half of December.
If accurate, the reading would mark the third decrease since the second half of November, when inflation hit 7.70%.
The survey, however, predicted that the core rate of inflation would rise slightly to 6.03%, from 6.00% two weeks ago.
A rising core rate of inflation, which strips out some volatile items, suggests that Mexico's central bank would raise its key interest rate in February, analysts said.
"We think that Banco de Mexico will continue to raise the rate in February because the decrease is due to declines in non-core inflation, while core inflation continues to rise," said Ramon de la Rosa, an analyst at Actinver.
The central bank's first monetary policy announcement of the year is scheduled for Feb. 10.
During the first half of January alone, consumer prices likely increased by 0.41%, the poll showed, while the core index of prices was seen rising by 0.26%.
Mexico's national statistics institute INEGI on Monday will publish inflation data for the first half of January. (Reporting by Noe Torres; Writing by Laura Gottesdiener; Editing by Paul Simao)
