The prediction of declining gas prices implicit in futures contracts remained more or less unchanged until late December 2021. With such a steep fall in gas prices in sight, inflation could not stay at high levels for long and, in fact, was projected to return swiftly to 2 per cent and below.
This methodology, however, would, in some cases, settle transactions only partially – for example, instead of settling the 1,000 CETES that were intended in a transaction, only 990 would be settled – a practice unheard at the time.