While the overall index closed the year with a year-on-year increase of 31.5%, celebrated by the Government as the lowest level since 2017, the impact of the tariff adjustment was decisive on household budgets. According to the report released by INDEC, the 'housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels' category accumulated a 41.6% increase in 2025, far exceeding the general average. In the Pampean region, where a substantial part of the population and economic activity is concentrated, the increase was even higher, reaching 47.8%, clearly reflecting the effect of the tariff restructuring applied during the year. This behavior turned public services into one of the main drivers of annual inflation, in a context where the Government advanced with the reduction of subsidies and the 'sinceration' of relative prices. In the Greater Buenos Aires area, the ten items with the highest increases compared to November showed double-digit variations in several cases. The lemon led the list with a jump of 31.2%, reaching a price of $4,066.55 per kilo. Among meats, the sirloin increased by 13.5%, reaching $15,094.30 per kilo, while the rump rose 10.4% to $17,733.28, and the brisket increased by 9.9%, with a price of $18,390.08. Other products that registered significant increases were oranges (9.7%, $1,241.67 per kilo), beef shoulder (9.5%, $14,263.11), butternut squash (9.4%, $1,244.78), common ground beef (7.6%, $8,624.25), and table bread, whose 390-gram package increased by 6.3% to $3,669.58. The behavior of these prices explains, to a large extent, the pressure that households continued to feel despite the general slowdown in inflation. In particular, the combination of increases in regulated services and basic foods kept the cost of living high, even in a year in which annual inflation showed a strong drop compared to previous periods. Thus, the close of 2025 left a scenario of contrasts: while the Government highlighted the drop in the year-on-year CPI as a central achievement of its economic policy, official data shows that public services and fuels were the sectors that increased the most and, together with certain essential foods, continued to strain family budgets throughout the country.
Next came the delicious apple, with an increase of 16.4% and a value of $4,009.31.
