Energy costs increase
Although Mexicali residents receive during summer a federal subsidy to help cover energy costs the city has one of the highest rates in the country.
Economist Roberto Valero, who leads the Baja California Center of Economic Studies, told La Crónica newspaper while most residents in Mexico pay their energy bills every other month, in Mexicali residents must pay it monthly.
Currently, the cost of energy is well above inflation, recording a rise again during the first half of April, which has an impact on the inflation index in Mexicali, Valero said.
In its latest report on the Consumer Price Index, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography recorded an inflation of 0.07 percent in the first half of April, above the 0.04 percent inflation rate of the previous biweekly period.
Valero told the newspaper energy, fuel and gas have driven inflation rates to continue rising.
“Energy companies are the ones that are putting pressure on inflation in Mexicali for this first half of April,” Valero said.
Annually, Mexicali has recorded an inflation rate of 4.75 percent. The inflation rate for energy was 6.44 percent.
The expert said low-income Mexicali households spend 40 percent of their family income to pay for energy bills during summer.
Even though Mexicali residents received last year an energy subsidy, in July of 2023 inflation rates for energy were 5.74 percent. This year energy prices are expected to increase as well, Valero said based in reports by Banco de México, the Mexican version of the US Federal Reserve.