MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

For Argentine unions, food basket inflation is 52% higher than the official index

Moyano and his “supermarket inflation” challenge Indec’s percentages

Argentine organized labour CGT, announced that based on their own analysis of the products that make up the basic food basket, on average they are 52% more expensive than those analyzed by the official statistics office, Indec

“However the definitive figures will be released later” said the CGT spokesperson who responds to Hugo Moyano, recently elected to continue at the helm of organized labour, but which the government of President Cristina Fernandez has challenged.

Ambito Financiero newspaper revealed that Moyano will report a 28% annual inflation rate, among other preliminary figures. The rates he was expected to show were based on data collected by a committee of women who visited supermarkets and by information provided by a private consulting agency.

“Yes 52%, that is the difference between our unions’ carefully checked numbers and those of the controversial Indec” said Omar Plaini, Moyano’s spokesperson and belonging to the news stand salespersons union.

According to the latest data available from Indec, the basic food basket for an adult last June stood at 220 Pesos or 48 US dollars per month, while the value of the total food and services basket was 487n Pesos or 106 dollars.

Last month Moyano during a political rally announced that the unions that follow him will be elaborating their own monthly consumer prices index, since they simple did not trust or believe in the numbers published by Indec.

Argentine official stats have been strongly questioned and challenged since January 2007, when methodology changes were introduced and professionals were removed and replaced by political cronies in line with then president Nestor Kirchner.

According to the latest available data, in June consumer prices increased to 9.9% compared to the same month in 2011, but for the private consultants, that also help with a congressional index, inflation was running at 23.96%, ranked the highest in the continent.

Precisely because of that gap, unions under the leadership of Moyano turned to what they call “supermarket inflation” for all salary discussions. The index is comfortably ahead of the official inflation but not that close to the 23.96% of private consultants’ estimates.