MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

IMF technical support for Argentina Statistics Office will continue until next April

Caroline Atkinson, IMF spokesperson made the announcement in Washington

International Monetary Fund (IMF) will continue collaborating with Argentina national statistics bureau, Indec, in order to create “a price index with stronger credibility,” the spokeswoman of the organization, Caroline Atkinson, assured in Washington.

From Buenos Aires it was reported that the IMF mission sent to help with a new index has concluded “its current technical mission”, which has been requested by the government.

Ms Atkinson said that the IMF decided to continue collaborating with the Argentine government until next April and the technical mission is expected to return in coming weeks.

Meanwhile Indec announced on Wednesday November’s inflation which stood at 0.7%, driven by clothing and food prices but slowing from the previous month.

Wednesday's data release brings official 12-month inflation to 11%, but most private forecasts expect inflation to end the year at between 25% and 30%. Private economic analysts claim the government continues to underreport real inflation.

”To sum up, 2010 will close with inflation of 27%, exceeding the level recorded in 2007 and 2008 by several points and making the biggest rise since (early 2002)” the Buenos Aires-based consulting firm Ecolatina wrote in a report.

Indec said heavily-weighted food and drinks prices rose 0.9% last month while clothing prices climbed 1.2%.

Consumer groups, opposition politicians and renegade statistics workers accuse Argentina's government of under-reporting inflation for the past four years for political gain as well as to save on inflation-linked bond payments.

Some local media had speculated that November's figure might come in a little higher than previous months after the government sought help from the IMF to create a new nationwide consumer price index.

Argentina's consumer price marked 0.8% in October and in November 2009.