A softer recent average, but a higher year-on-year rate
Across Colombia’s 80-month series, August 2026 closes with a 0.39% monthly increase, following 0.16% in July. Its 12-month rate is 6.25%, against July’s 6.02%, using the index-derived figures in the report. Prices therefore increased in August on both comparison horizons.
The report’s recent-pace measure covers a different window: average monthly inflation of 0.31% in June–August 2026 versus 0.68% in March–May, with three observations per group. August’s increase over July does not invalidate that lower recent average. Nor is the average a cumulative three-month inflation rate.
Comparing two August observations within the 80-month sample, the 12-month rate is 6.25% in 2026 versus 5.10% in 2025. The report states an increase of 1.15 percentage points. January–August inflation is also higher: 5.35% in 2026 versus 4.22% in 2025, comparing eight months in each year. Interpretation: recent monthly moderation has not translated into a lower reading on these longer comparisons. This is a description of the supplied periods, not a forecast.
How to read the chart without mixing the horizons
The four summary cards separate the latest 12-month rate, the monthly change, January–August accumulation and the increase since end-2019. The final card rounds the cumulative result to +54.5%; the report gives 54.54%. That cumulative change is not an annual rate.
In the upper panel, the gold line compares each month with the same month a year earlier. Within the 80-month sample, the annotated maximum is 13.34% in March 2023 and the minimum is 1.49% in November 2020. The line ends at 6.25% in August 2026. Being below the sample maximum does not mean that the earlier price increases have been undone.
The lower panel measures consecutive months. Red bars show increases and blue bars show decreases. Across the same 80 observations, the report identifies seven months of deflation. The largest monthly increase is 1.78% in January 2023; the largest decline is −0.37% in June 2020 in the index-derived series. The report cites DANE’s −0.38% for that latter observation.
The panels have different vertical scales. A downward movement of the gold line is a lower 12-month rate, whereas a blue monthly bar indicates a monthly price-level decline. Neither the height of bars nor the slope of the line establishes what caused inflation.
The eight available observations for 2026
This extract places monthly and 12-month rates side by side for eight observations in the full 80-month sample. August’s monthly rate returns to June’s 0.39%, while its 12-month reading is different. The two columns answer different questions and should not substitute for each other. September–December are not included in this snapshot; missing months are not zero inflation.
| Month | Monthly change | 12-month change |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-01 | 1.18% | 5.35% |
| 2026-02 | 1.08% | 5.29% |
| 2026-03 | 0.78% | 5.56% |
| 2026-04 | 0.78% | 5.69% |
| 2026-05 | 0.47% | 5.84% |
| 2026-06 | 0.39% | 6.14% |
| 2026-07 | 0.16% | 6.02% |
| 2026-08 | 0.39% | 6.25% |
Historical comparison: six completed calendar years
The table compares six completed years, 2020–2025, within the 80-month series. Each rate measures December against the preceding December. The largest annual result is 13.12% in 2022 and the smallest is 1.62% in 2020 in the index-derived series; the report cites DANE’s 1.61% for 2020.
| Year | Reported annual inflation |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 1.62% |
| 2021 | 5.62% |
| 2022 | 13.12% |
| 2023 | 9.28% |
| 2024 | 5.20% |
| 2025 | 5.10% |
The 2026 figure of 5.35% covers only January–August and is deliberately outside the completed-year table. Its like-for-like comparison is the supplied 4.22% for the same eight months of 2025. Historical similarity does not guarantee the same future outcome: neither this annual ranking nor the monthly pattern determines the remaining months of 2026.
COP 100 becoming COP 154.54: the level, not just the pace
For the 80-month window, the report supplies a cumulative price increase of 54.54%: what cost COP 100 at end-2019 corresponds to COP 154.54 in August 2026 under this index comparison. The end-2019 starting point includes January 2020’s change; it is not an end-January starting balance.
Interpretation: the lower recent average and the cumulative increase describe different aspects of inflation. A slower positive pace does not restore the earlier price level. This illustration is not an investment return or the measured cost of an individual household’s purchases. The 54.54% increase is also not itself the percentage loss of purchasing power; no additional purchasing-power calculation is introduced here.
Methodology, source precision and limits
The report and image were generated October 14, 2026 at 15:03 UTC. The declared underlying series is DANE’s national headline CPI via CEPALSTAT indicator 365, with December 2018 = 100 as its index base. The analysis uses 80 monthly observations, January 2020–August 2026, not October inflation data.
Monthly changes compare consecutive indices; 12-month changes compare the same month in consecutive years. Completed-year rates compare December with December. Year-to-date inflation compares the latest month with the preceding December, and full-window accumulation uses the index ratio from end-2019. This article reproduces supplied results without new financial calculations.
The report attributes three differences of 0.01 percentage points to CEPALSTAT’s two-decimal index versus DANE’s unrounded calculation: August 2026 over 12 months, 6.25% versus 6.24%; calendar 2020, 1.62% versus 1.61%; and June 2020 monthly, −0.37% versus −0.38%. The article preserves both figures with their attribution rather than silently replacing one with the other.
According to the report, our own system retains raw responses with SHA-256 fingerprints. The broader database contains 721 records across nine countries and reaches September 2026, but Colombia’s sample still ends in August. No agency corrections are recorded in that database snapshot; future revisions remain possible. The series measures Colombian-peso prices, not dollar prices. No causal or spending-category decomposition was supplied, and the raw agency responses were not independently reprocessed for this article.
Sources and data fingerprint
Sources: supplied RavenInvestor report and original chart, October 14, 2026, 15:03 UTC. Declared series: Colombia national headline CPI, DANE via CEPALSTAT indicator 365. Latest reference month: August 2026. DANE comparison figures are cited as supplied in the report. Declared data channel: CEPALSTAT.
Data fingerprint declared by the report: fb86d0ebdf44d56d. Identifies the supplied data version; it does not independently certify the figures or constitute a full source audit.