MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Official inflation in Argentina during February, 3.4% and 7.1% in two months

Kicillof next to aides making the announcement and anticipating a stabilization of prices for March

Inflation in Argentina during the month of February reached 3.4%, which means that in the first two months of the year the index stands above 7.1%, according to the latest figures released by the country's National Institute of Statistics and Census' (INDEC) Consumer Price Index.

 The areas of the economy which registered the steepest price increases were in food and drink, at 4%, clothing, 1.4%, home furnishings 4.8% and medical attention, which rose a total of 6% over the month.

The much expected announcement was done in a short public presentation Monday afternoon by Economy minister Axel Kicillof, the undisputed strongman in economic affairs in President Cristina Fernandez administration.

Kicillof underlined that the statistics compiled for February did not cover solely the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires, but “the entire nation” with the new index and also highlighted what he called a “deceleration in prices” in the second fortnight of the month, after a series of increases at the end of January onwards due to the (23%) devaluation of the peso.

“In January and February there were prices that climbed a lot and later they have evened out,” he underlined during his speech.

Under the new survey system, elaborated with technical assistance from the IMF, Argentina is divided into six regions and a total of 220.000 item-values in over 13.000 businesses are complied for the monthly index. The new system is identified as the National Urban consumer prices index.

Nevertheless the index was 0.9 percentage point below private consultants average estimated at 4.3% and as such released by opposition members from the Congress Freedom of Expression committee.

Domestic Commerce Secretary Augusto Costa (a Kicillof man) had anticipated that the February index was going to absorb all the price increases process (following an agreement with the private sector on a list of items), but he added “in many cases unjustified”.

Kicillof made the announcement next to stats office director Ana Maria Edwin and the technical secretary, Norberto Itzcovich.

“In January and February some prices climbed quite a lot but then stabilized, and during March we are observing a deceleration in certain prices” after several complex weeks, said the minister.

Kicillof had time to question the (higher) congressional index (4.3%) and challenged the private consultants to unveil 'how you make your reports'.