With the highest inflation in the last 23 years, there are also cases of people who have been favored. According to Dane, the prices of the family basket had -at the end of 2022- a increase of 13.12 percentthe mayor since March 1999.
This data exceeded the estimates made by the Bank of the Republic (12.3 percent), market analysts (12.64 percent) and the Ministry of Finance (12.2 percent), which I was confident that prices would start to drop in Decemberbut it was not like that.
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However, that price increase creates some winners – strange as it sounds – and it has to do especially with obligations that have been contracted in the past.
Two particular cases, but that may have many people or families, have to do with those who will have current credits contracted years ago or part of the population that pays rent.
For example, people who purchased housing other than social housing (non-VIS housing) on credit and had mortgage credits They are in pesos, very recently, in July of last year, they contracted loans that were around 12.4 percent.
But the most favored are those who have credit in pesos taken between May and September 2021. These loans, which are relatively recently contracted, were taken at less than 9 percent per year, that is, in real terms they are paying negative interest, more than 4 points below current inflation.
For their part, those who bought a loan a social housing (VIS) in pesosFrom July of last year to November 2012, all loans that are still in force currently have negative rates. For example, the loans contracted between September and October 2021 were contracted at rates of 10.5 percent, more than 3.5 points below inflation.
People who have invested in funds that are indexed to UVR and inflation are earning more money
Even, in consumer loans there are those who are now paying negative rates. In these loans agreed to for five years or more, the rates contracted between the end of 2020 and December 2021 were below current inflation. In April and May 2021 they reached less than 12 percent, and they are loans that are very likely still valid today.
“Those people who have fixed-rate investments, even at very high rates, taking advantage of Banco República’s increases, are currently covering inflation. CDTs or short-term investment funds are at 15-16 percent and money is renting them more than inflation itself“, highlighted Andrés Moreno Jaramillo, economic and stock market analyst.
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In addition, people who have invested in funds that are indexed to the UVR (Real Value Unit) and inflation are earning more money, taking into account the variation of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has had an upward trend up to reach 13.12 percent.
Otherwise, it happens with those who have UVR credits because they will have to pay more money in interest, since they update their value according to inflation, which is at a maximum of the last 23 years. For this reason, Andrés Moreno’s recommendation is to switch to a fixed rate. “There is no reason to be in the UVR with high inflation scenarios”said.
The winners with the lease
As to those who live in rent, evidently will also gain if the contracts are renewed at the end of 2022, since this is one of the services that can increase in the same proportion as inflation does each year.
For example, those who had definitions of their lease in December, this rose in 5.6 percent, which was the inflation of 2021. If it had been renewed a month later, in January, the increase would have been 13.12 percent. This situation is more or less similar for all those who renewed their housing rental contracts between September and December.
13.12 percent will be the increase that people or families who renew their rental contract in the course of 2023 will have to assume. For example, if one million pesos is currently paid, the increase can be a maximum of 131,200 pesos, therefore, they will pay 1,131,200 pesos monthly.
