Transparency and Efficiency: Argentine Edition
Argentina’s inflation numbers are looking cooked, if not burnt. Hopefully the real figures aren’t too bad.
IMF asks Argentina to clarify inflation figures
By Jude Webber in Buenos Aires
Published: February 11 2008 21:31 | Last updated: February 11 2008 21:31
The International Monetary Fund has asked Argentina’s statistical institute, Indec, to clarify inflation data and methodology that has become increasingly contested over the past year.
Private economists and shoppers say rising prices are not reflected in official statistics, but the government denies widespread allegations that it has manipulated the figures in a bid to mask mounting inflation.
The government’s internal trade secretary, Guillermo Moreno, who has been in charge of policing price controls, is the subject of an investigation by Argentine federal prosecutors, in response to allegations from opposition senators that data has been tampered with and statistical secrecy violated. Opposition politicians and some Indec workers claim he has orchestrated a year of official intervention and replaced key officials with pliant functionaries.
The issue is a pressing one of credibility for the new government of President Cristina Fernández, who promised on taking office in December that the data would be overhauled and the US’s consumer price index methodology copied to dispel doubts.
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They also say other data using inflation as an input – including poverty figures based on the price of a basic basket of goods whose cost is no longer clear – have been muddied.
The IMF, which is due to conduct a review of Argentina’s economy, last week asked Indec for clarification of its inflation methodology.
. . .
“Indec’s performance is just a joke. It started as a little lie and it’s snowballed,” says Eduardo Fracchia, director of the economics department at Argentine business school IAE.
