The growing public discussion around statistics that reflect inflation is an emerging phenomenon that is not surprising. Here and there voices are raised warning that the economy is far from the supposed deflation promoted by different government actors.. Economists close to the Government such as Ricardo Arriazu, Miguel Ángel Broda and Domingo Cavallohave raised objections to the “Milei plan” in recent weeks.
But what is significant is this: according to data from the Foundation for Latin American Economic Research (FIEL), the first week of April again brought a price increase of 6.3% in the City of Buenos Aires.
The figure is worrying and has a full impact on the government campaign that seeks to appease inflationary expectations. The possibility of Minister Caputo to limit the joint agreements via the non-approval of the Ministry of Labor depends, to a large extent, on this.
But there are several elements that count in this story. The release of the head of Indec in the last hours perhaps reinforced the media error carried out by both President Mileias by Minister Caputo. The Jumbo-Bot that never calculated inflation and that played by inventing virtual price cuts, made it clear that there is no – or prefers to avoid – mention of the true indicators. As was said, this was added Marco Lavagna’s message, a man from the statistical institute, who decided to come out at the crossroads of the whole scene. “Official statistics are an irreplaceable public good,” he wrote on the X network.
“Indec works with internationally agreed methodologies that are public, to ensure the transparency of its procedures. Protecting it is and should always be a State policy,” he said, separating himself from the president and his minister.
The struggle for inflation
So much tension draws an underground fight. President Milei has tired of sending shots for elevation to the leadership of Indec, ensuring that inflation is going down, and that price dynamics are very close to single digits.. It is a way to put pressure on Lavagna, who will publish the March data next Friday. Will it give 10.5% as the Government wants? Or will it be located at a figure closer to 13.2% of the City? There is an additional element to analyze: for the month of March and at the country level, FIEL measured an inflation of 13.2%. That is, in the same line as the City, which makes the data recorded above more alarming, the evolution of 6.2% in just one week for April.
The last time Milei’s “sending” in “lower-inflation” format took place was on Monday, with Alejandro Fantino, where, to argue that many “don’t see it” but that inflation is “collapsing” (Caputo dixit), asked the program’s production for images from the Jumbo Bot Twitter account, which marked an alleged decrease in prices. Minutes later, the Bot account wrote: “This account is a social experiment. It never analyzed prices, nor was there a bot that followed Jumbo products.”
Aside from the experiment, what is relevant about all the points mentioned above is that it seems to be evident certain concern among different officials of the Casa Rosada and the Treasury Palace from what would be an inflation that runs above expectations. Caputo’s accusation of prepaid companies as those responsible for cornering the middle class with increases, the threat of imports, some comments against the business community, the complaint about 2×1, 3×2 promotions, and some other interventions did nothing more than alert. Then came the increases in public services, which curiously, in the opinion of the Government, were not responsible for the increase in the cost of living. The central data is the one stated at the beginning of this note. Prices in the first week of April rose again in an obvious waywhich could show a balance for April well above what Indec will surely report on Friday for March.
Source: Ambito
