Adios Argentina

In these days of widely reported food riots, it's interesting to read about what's happening in Argentina. People remember shopping in supermarkets there 20 years ago when there was hyperinflation and prices were rising so fast that the increases had to be announced at frequent intervals over loud speakers. In March this year a farm strike caused there to be no beef available for some days and other meat prices, together with vegetables and dairy products, soared. The government's official inflation rate was nevertheless a low 1.1%. The opposition party is howling that the government is manipulating the figures as a third of the CPI basket consists of food and prices are reckoned to be up 20-25% over the past year. Tomorrow the government is publishing a new consumer price index, updating the current basket of goods to reflect consumption patterns of the majority of the population more accurately, meaning that measures of middle class spending on private schools, healthcare and foreign holidays will be omitted and the number of goods being measured will be cut from 818 to 440. They will also stop publishing data from the provinces, where price rises have often far exceeded CPI, and concentrate solely on greater Buenos Aires. "Lies, damned lies and statistics!" is the comment from the opposition.