MEXICO CITY (Reuters – Mexican inflation was forecast to slow in the first six months of May. However, it is expected that the rate of change will continue throughout the year.

Ten analysts polled predicted that annual consumer price inflation would fall to 7.88% in May from 7.65% in April.

Core inflation is the rate at which volatile food and energy are removed. It was slightly below the 7.27% recorded in two previous weeks.

Mexico announced an interim plan to fight inflation in March. However, analysts believe it has not had any impact yet on inflation. Instead, they attribute the recent drop to energy subsidies.

“The levels remain high above the Bank of Mexico target. Alain Jaimes from Signum Research said that the Bank of Mexico will continue to tighten its monetary policy to address inflation expectations.

Mexico’s central banks raised its interest rates by 50 basis points last week to 7%. This is the latest of a string of increases that started in June last year. It has set a permanent inflation target of 3% plus/minus 1 percentage point.

The poll showed that headline consumer prices will have fallen by 0.07 percent in May compared to April’s second half, while core inflation is expected to rise by 0.29 percent.

On Tuesday, Mexico’s National Statistics Agency will release its official Inflation figures for the First Half of May.