MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Argentina's April inflation 6.7%, according to the Congress Index
“The utility rates increase explain more than two thirds of the month's inflation”, said the release 
The Congress Index was born in 2011 when the Cristina Fernandez government threatened private consultants with fines Argentina's April inflation climbed to a record 6.7%, and 19.4% in the first four months of the year, according to the latest Congress Index, announced on Tuesday. Public utility rates were blamed for two thirds of the April increase, the highest for a month since 2002.
“The utility rates increases explain more than two thirds of the month's inflation, determining to great extent the magnitude of the monthly variation”, said a release from the Congress Index committee. The first quarter inflation in 2015 was 8%.
However in April other items also increased above 2% in the month, food and beverage, as well as education and health services. This means that hard core inflation remained above 2% during the month. Food and beverage, reported 35% jump in the last twelve months.
The 6.2% rate for April and 13.6% so far this year, represents 41.7% year on.
The news on Tuesday was also the fact that the announcement was a release, when usually a group of lawmakers from the Freedom of Expression committee explain the significance of the inflationary rate.
The Congress index was born in May 2011, following on the ban imposed by the Cristina Fernandez administration to release private estimates, when it was well known that the official stats office, INE, percentages suffered cosmetic accountancy to satisfy the goals of the government. The Congress index was normally double the official INE rate from the Cristina Fernandez administration.
The release of private consultants estimates were exposed and threatened with fines and other reprisals.
However some members of the Congress Index committee of the time are now officials from president Mauricio Macri's government.
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Read all commentsInterannual inflation rate of nearly 42 percent.
May 25th, 2016 - 04:11 pm 0Now that is something a government can be proud of.
By the end of the year I will need a wheelbarrow to fill with pesos to buy a loaf of that low-protein argie wheat bread. That's assuming that the peronchos running the barricades and blocking the roads will actually allow anything to be delivered.
Tick tock.
May 25th, 2016 - 06:27 pm 0While Macri totally screws up Argentina's economy, he and his honcho men keep repeating the Joy will still come...after some suffering.
May 26th, 2016 - 05:25 pm 0They have, however, reset the clock lately...the Promised Land used to be the second semester...now it's next year.
In Macri's Joyland, full employment comes after unemployment is increased...monetary stability comes after rising inflation to record levels...poverty “zero” comes after increasing the number of poor...and so on and so on.
But fear not. Any failures will be attributed to the past K government, or, as Marti is already beginning to do at #1, to the “peronchos” preventing Macri from running the government as “efficiently” as he wants.
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