MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Official September inflation in Argentina 0.8%, less than half the so called Congress index

Argentina is expected to present a new CPI with IMF technical assistance sometime next month

The Argentine government official Consumer Prices Index climbed 0.8% in September over August and reached 7.4% in the first nine months of the year, according to the National Stats Institute, Indec.

Healthcare and clothing were the two items which experienced the largest hikes, 3.9% and 2.3%. Meantime wholesale prices increased 1% in the ninth month of the year and 10.4% so far this year. Construction cost was up 2.3% and 17.9%.

As happens month after month, these figures are more than double the so called “Congress index” which is an average of private consultants that are limited or intimidate with fines and court cases, and which is released by Freedom of Expression Committee opposition members.

In effect according to the Congress index, inflation in September jumped 2.11% (the highest September since 1991) and accumulating 25.44% in the last twelve months.

Meanwhile it was revealed that Argentina will likely not present its long-awaited report on the implementation of a new national consumer price index to the International Monetary Fund board of directors until November.

The new timetable likely means the issue will not be reviewed by IMF leaders until later this year, or early next year, in a move that government officials see as an example of how relations with the multilateral institution have improved in recent months, according to reports by state-run news agency Télam.

Government officials insisted this improved relationship with multilateral institutions became evident at the annual IMF and World Bank meetings, which ended yesterday in Washington, DC.

In February, the IMF issued a “declaration of censure” against Argentina in what was its harshest reprimand to date over the quality of its inflation and GDP growth data, and gave the country until September 29 to take action.

The IMF’s executive board had said then that Argentina had failed to make sufficient progress in improving the accuracy of the data. It called on the government to fix its data problems “without any further delay.”

Argentina’s inflation data have been questioned for years by analysts of all political stripes who say the government has underreported price increases and GDP growth since 2007 for political gain and to reduce payments on its inflation-indexed debt.