Soaring Prices in Argentina
Soaring prices in Argentina make inflation the number one concern in this South American country. “Society is fragile: everything is hanging by a thread”, said Carlos F. De Angelis, a sociologist at the Unversity of Buenos Aires who specializes in public opinion.. “Inflation is the No. 1 concern.”
Argentina has endured price rises of 30% last year, according to an unofficial index which was published by the opposition political party. The governement in Argentina has been accused of manipulating economic data in the past, and claims that inflation reached only 10.9 percent in 2013
In 2014 inflation could rise to 45 percent, according to a recent report byJ.P.Morgan in New York, which is starting to approach the annual rate of 56% of Venezuela. are being blamed by the news organizations for seldom broaching the issue of high inflation. For years the National Statistics Institute published an inflation rate that few people believed to be truthful. This provoked rare censure from The International Monetary Fund.
The government in Argentina is now trying to repair its international image. It recently released a revised index that put inflation at 3.7 percent for January alone. Unofficial calculations estimate a much higher rate for February of 2014
With inflation soaring, the government has put in place a new round of price freezes on items such as vegetables, meat, canned food, and even some school supplies.
Billboards and ads encourage the people to call a hotline and denounce the stores that do not respect the freezes or fail to stock the goods on their shelves.
(to be continued)
