MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Kirchner claims there's a plot to hike inflation indexes

Argentine prosecutors have requested that Domestic Trade Secretary Guillermo Moreno and the newly-appointed Beatriz Paglieri, the official in charge of calculating inflation, be summoned to testify.

This week courts raided the Statistics and Census Office, INDEC, offices in Buenos Aires to seize controversial documentation. INDEC staff has been protesting against the lay-offs ordered by the Kirchner administration, who has accused some employees of conspiracy. INDEC indexes are decisive for the booming Argentine economy both for labour agreements and post-default sovereign bonds which are linked to the economy growth and rate of inflation. Kirchner said that as his government "doesn't play into their hands" the investment funds are "lobbying." He added that the investment funds have sold more than 300 million dollars in bonds adjusted by inflation and bough dollars. "They are seeking anyway to make inflation grow to increase their profits. This is why they are trying to make us disbelieve inflation figures (released by INDEC). Everybody should be aware of this," the President said. "They are out for the pockets of the Argentine people... they want to grow at the expense of Argentina". The government has estimated inflation for this year at about 8% but private economists put it at nearly twice as much. Meanwhile, opposition Radical senators Ernesto Sanz and Gerardo Morales said in a statement that they made a further legal presentation before Federal Prosecutor Carlos Stornelli, accusing Paglieri of having destroyed lists with staples' prices. They urged Stornelli to investigate Paglieri and other INDEC officials, alleging that there is a "very high risk of manipulation and distortion of statistics". They added that Paglieri "with the complicity of (INDEC's) Human Resources Director Roberto Martínez and Life Conditions Director Luis Fara on July 24 may have destroyed all kind of sensitive documentation and public information in those offices". A union leader said that he witnessed when the three INDEC officials were shredding documentation "like mad". Sanz is the head of the Radical party caucus in the Senate, and Morales is the party chairman and a vice-presidential hopeful in the ticket headed by presidential candidate Roberto Lavagna.