Argentina: Inflation exceeded 16% in three months

Inflation exceeds 16% in three months, price tags change “every four to five days”, the feeling of many is “the rope is tightening” around their necks, despite the recovery of economic figures: thousands of Argentines protested yesterday Wednesday in the capital Buenos Aires urging the government to increase support measures in the face of the threat of inflation, once again.

The rise in prices in March announced yesterday by the National Statistics Institute (INDEC) was jumping (+ 6.7%, after 3.9% in January and 4.7% in February), which means that cumulatively in the first quarter it reached 16.1%. And 55.1% in the last twelve months – this is one of the largest increases in the world.

Its gallop, accelerated by global inflationary pressures, is increasingly challenging the government’s goal of controlling it in 2022. This, together with the deficit reduction, is an integral part of the recent agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). ) for the refinancing of the $ 45 billion loan received by Argentina from the Washington financial institution.

According to the trend of the first quarter, inflation may, according to analysts, reach 60% this year. Far above the 50.9% recorded in 2021 and the range of 38 to 48% to which he wanted to “limit” it in 2022.

Inflation in March increased mainly in the sectors of education (+ 23.6%), clothing and business (+ 10.9%), water and electricity (+ 7.7%) and food (+7, 2%). Although the government has tried to prevent the increase with a series of measures it has been implementing since the beginning of the year.

Its annual price control program, through agreements with the private sector, has expanded to include some 1,700 items with special labels. The value of the “food card”, which concerns 2.4 million disadvantaged people, has also increased by 50%, and can reach up to 110 euros per month for a family with two children.

But millions of Argentines are not being held accountable, such as those who, following a call from unions and collectives on the left of Alberto Fernandes’s government (center-left), filled May Square opposite the presidency building yesterday to ask for more help. business.

Many protesters stressed that they see no response from the economic recovery (+ 10.3% in 2021, after three years of recession). And although poverty fell overall (from 40 to 37.3%) at the end of 2021, to pre-pandemic levels, nothing has changed for Argentina’s 10.8 million people below the poverty line.

“I feel that things are very bad, the economy is out of the control of the government,” said Mario Almada, a 60-year-old eligible builder who receives bonuses but says the money is “running out of water” and “not even enough”. to buy food “. The situation “is beginning to resemble” the 1980s, when “morning prices were not the same as afternoon prices,” he added with concern, referring to a turbulent period marked by hyperinflation. Today, prices rise “every four to five days. The rope is constantly tightening a little more, and it is starting to drown us”.

Last week several hundred people, again after a call from left-wing organizations, “camped” for 48 hours, partially closing a major boulevard in the heart of Buenos Aires, to make the same claims.

Economy Minister Martin Guzman, who expected March to be “the worst month of the year” in terms of inflation, argued that “people know the worst inflation process in decades. With the war (in Ukraine) there is a great deal of the whole production chain “.

However, he also called for “more political support” for the government’s economic program, a sybilic reference to rifts in the governing alliance, part of which, led by Vice President Christina Kirsner, is barely up for a deal with the IMF.

At the beginning of the year, declaring a “war on inflation” earlier this year, President Fernandes provoked precautionary price hikes “for fear of freezing,” said University of Belgrano economist Victor Becker.

SOURCE: AMPE