MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

In twelve Argentine provinces inflation is two times and a half the official index

The average inflation for the twelve moths of 2010 was 27.5%

Several Argentine provinces mistrustful of government statistics, particularly inflation have mounted their own offices which show that consumer prices in the last twelve months have soared on average 27.5%, which is almost two and a half times the official index applicable to Buenos Aires City and Buenos Aires province

According to the think tank IERAL (Studies of Argentina and Latin America’s reality), which if financed by one of Argentina’s most respected foundations, Mediterranea, based in Cordoba, the situation is extensive to most of north east Argentine provinces.

Twelve provinces have mounted their own inflation monitoring offices, Mendoza, Santa Fe, Chaco, San Luis, Misiones, Entre Ríos, Río Negro, Jujuy, Neuquén, Chubut, Salta and La Pampa. The average consumer prices index of these provinces, based on their own statistics in January reached 27.5% for the last twelve months. This compares with the much discredited Indec which depends directly from the Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner administration and announced to all winds as 10.3%.

Furthermore several acknowledged private organizations and consultants that have their own monitoring systems in Buenos Aires City and openly challenged Indec percentages have been fined or forced to keep their numbers secret because, according to an official decree, “they refused to disclose the methodology used to reach such distorting percentages”.

In the twelve provinces the consumer price index for the month of January 2011 was 1.8% above the previous month, which is more than double the official 0.7% from Indec.

IERAL also points out that the co-participation funds (resources from the federal government distributed to the provinces) during February were 34.8% and 26.6% higher than twelve months before for the provinces of Misiones and Corrientes. Other indexes show a strong economic activity with new car registries increasing 47.8% and 56.1% over a year ago in Misiones and Corrientes.