MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine opposition says May inflation was 1.5% and 23.5% in last 12 months

Silvana Giudici president of the Lower House Freedom of Expression

Argentine opposition lawmakers reported Tuesday that the inflation rate reached 1.5% in May, according to the estimates provided by eight “censored” economic consultants. They added it was their duty to inform about data which “the government tries to hide from public opinion”.

Congress representatives from the four opposition parties also stated that inflation in Argentina in the last twelve months reached 23.5% and anticipated that the rate expected to be reported by the Indec national statistics bureau on Wednesday “will surely be between 0.7 and 0.8%”.

“What costs 2 pesos for any Argentine, costs 1 peso for Indec head Guillermo Moreno” said the lawmakers ironically in reference to the Domestic Market Secretary who is the man in charge of manipulating inflation indexes and bullying retailer chains (sometimes at gunpoint) to declare lower prices.

Besides the political impact of the announcement, lawmakers appealed to their congressional privilege to underscore the fact that private economic consultants have been warned and some of them fined by Mr. Moreno for not revealing their ‘work methodology’.

“We requested the consulting companies to provide us with the latest Consumer Price Index variation in Buenos Aires City and the metropolitan area”, said lawmaker Ricardo Gil Lavedra.

The lawmaker added that the press conference to make the announcement was also “in support of and to ensure a right which is threatened: the right to free expression and to express opinion”. The statement refers to the fines Moreno imposed on some of the eight economic consultants for having released their estimates.

Silvana Giudici president of the Lower House Freedom of Expression commission said that it was decided the commission should interact as the instrument by which “the people can have access to numbers and percentages the government wants to hide”.

“Not satisfied with the destruction of the official figures and a highly technical institution as was Indec, the government is now going after the private economic consultants”, added Giudici.

Lawmaker Gustavo Ferrari said even when “all Argentines every day have a clear idea of inflation, now they will access to the percentages through Congress” because private consultants percentages “will be released on a monthly basis”.

“We are defending freedom of expression. We believe these numbers are real, we believe the consultants are serious, but the bottom line is the right to speak out your mind” underlined lawmaker Paula Bertol.