MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Why you can’t find a Big Mac on Argentina’s Mc Donald’s menu?
Argentina’s booming economy has been one of the few bright lights in an otherwise gloomy global financial picture the last few years. But inflation of up to 25% threatens that growth. It's one of the world’s highest inflation rates, reports the US public funded Public Radio International. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment ruleswhy would they want a big mac,
Feb 08th, 2012 - 10:57 pm - Link - Report abuse 0when they are ordered to have a KFC .
Forget about that McGarbage in Argentina, bife de chorizo anyone?
Feb 08th, 2012 - 11:14 pm - Link - Report abuse 0http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzXq7vY9xVo
Marcos, McGarbage aka Mcdonalds is for ugly people. I'm in for the bife de chorizo, rice, fries, salad and a good wine.
Feb 08th, 2012 - 11:37 pm - Link - Report abuse 0:-) good taste Fido.
Feb 08th, 2012 - 11:50 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Fear not our Argentine friends. Hiding their most popular emulsified offal product spares you from a culinary disaster. It also gives you one thing less to choke on when the real inflation figures come to light.
Feb 09th, 2012 - 12:56 am - Link - Report abuse 0To the fuck with McDonalds. Betos Lomitos is better. Period.
Feb 09th, 2012 - 03:08 am - Link - Report abuse 0Everyone seems to be missing the point - put the Big Mac up there, charge what they should and see where the currency is in line with others.
Feb 09th, 2012 - 04:03 am - Link - Report abuse 0I agree re betos lomitos.
They are trying to distract (like the gov't) from the real issue. I hear the quarter pound combo (or whatever they call it there) is $45 pesos or 1/100 of the median wage! Which if in the USA would be U$25 and I assure you nobody is paying that much to eat at McDs. I think it is more like $6 or $7 so their currency is about 3-4x over priced.
Feb 09th, 2012 - 12:52 pm - Link - Report abuse 0That is why they are jealous, McDs is considered a treat in ARG while in the USA it is just plain fast food.
“Boyano said Argentina’s current government, especially commerce secretary Guillermo Moreno, is notorious for telling companies to fix certain prices to keep the official inflation rate down.”
Feb 09th, 2012 - 09:25 pm - Link - Report abuse 0This is the REAL point. Price fixing doesn't work. Let the price fetch what it will. If people don't buy it, then Mickey D's will disappear. Can't say that would be a bad thing.
Inflation is not the only thing that affects people's life. It is something very serious, but having inflation doesn't necessarily mean that people's life is not improving.
Feb 10th, 2012 - 01:21 am - Link - Report abuse 0And Argentinian inflation is caused many times because basic industries like energy, food, communication do not want to invest to expand the offer. Argentina has been growing a lot, but if you have corporations that in front of this situation prefer to rise the prices in stead of producing and selling more (like in here), then you get inflation.
The Government is now being criticized because it asks main petrol company in Argentina (YPF) to produce more in stead of selling more expensive. But producing more is needed in order to avoid the rising of prices.
If you don't control huge companies they do whatever they want and prices get high.
@ 9 laceja: “Price fixing doesn't work” I would love to believe in the “invisible hand of the market” that accommodates and balances everything, but the truth is that THERE IS ALWAYS PRICE FIXING, corporations do it all the time. It is good to have it fixed in a way that basic products are accessible to everybody, but most of the times lazy companies don't want to produce more.
Also foreign huge enterprises like Cargil and other owners of cereals and other raw material to produce food speculate with prices, this is a problem for Argentina and for the world also.
In the last 15 years the price of food in the world has rised A LOT.
All this doesn't mean that I agree with the Government's policy on inflation, but they are not the ones rising prices...
10. Your lack of education on how an economy works is truly astonishing! If it is any indication of the rest of the RG population I can see why it is such a disaster there.
Feb 10th, 2012 - 12:59 pm - Link - Report abuse 0My Favorite statements...
If you don't control huge companies they do whatever they want and prices get high.
but most of the times lazy companies don't want to produce more.
Truly astonishing....
Yankeeboy. You are wrong.
Feb 11th, 2012 - 12:40 am - Link - Report abuse 0Inflation: rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. That's what my English dictionary says.
So I'm going to do it simple for you. You know Offer and Demand? I think you must. So this little thing called demand has being growing a lot since 2002. It did. FACT.
Now did Offer grew that much? No. It didn't. FACT.
So now if we have only 10 cars and 20 people wanting to buy them, we get a situation similar to a (altough not at that scale).
Also, as people is getting a bit more money overtime, salesmen think they can rise even more the prices.
Now this inflation is so big it creates a situation were people is not sure how much prices are going to rise, so they buy stuff as soon as they can. And this makes inflation even bigger, as it makes demand bigger.
“viveza criolla” they call this (semi)fradulent behaviour in Argentina, and they are even proud of it... they made it a national hobby, and as you can see, it easily reaches governmental levels.
Feb 13th, 2012 - 12:52 am - Link - Report abuse 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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