Consumer prices rose 1.7% in July, the...

Consumer prices rose 1.7% in July, the smallest monthly increase in seven years, the central bank of Mexico announced. Inflation for the first seven months of the year reached 43.3%, the bank said, while the annual inflation rate from July, 1987, was 122.3%. The government started an Economic Solidarity Pact with business and labor last December to control inflation, which soared by a record 159.2% for 1987. The biggest contributors to the increase in the latest report were an 11.6% increase in fresh meat prices and 7.4% in rents.