INDEC is preparing the launch of a new consumer price index (CPI), a project on which its head, Marcos Lavagna, has been working
for more than three years
and which would have technical advice from the Monetary Fund.
"
We are in the final stage
," official sources assured.
The idea is
to update the consumption baskets
based on the latest National Household Expenditure Survey (ENGHo), which dates from the period 2017-2018 and will replace the one that currently feeds the CPI with data from 2004-2005.
Lavagna launched the project in 2020, under the management of Alberto Fernández.
In its original plan, the index was to be ready
by mid-2022,
but its launch was postponed.
The official praised by Javier Milei seeks that the index that measures inflation reflects changes in household consumption habits that vary over time.
The new basket seeks to reflect changes in the consumption of
goods and services in family spending
, new marketing channels (businesses, minimarkets, supermarkets, shopping malls),
new forms of price surveys
and taking advantage of new sources of data and improvements in systems for capturing information.
"We are testing programming systems, the main thing is updating consumer baskets based on the latest expenditure survey," official sources explained.
The intention is for the renewed CPI to be active this year and official dispatches assure that it will be "very transparent."
The clarification seeks to clear up the ghosts that reappear from time to time after the intervention of the INDEC with gangs by the former Secretary of Commerce, Guillermo Moreno, in 2007.
The organization was also in the eye of the storm for modifying the calculation of the gross domestic product (GDP) to supposedly avoid paying interest on debt issued in 2005. A London court a few weeks ago sentenced Argentina to pay US$337 million if you want to continue with the trial for the “PBI coupon” bonds.
The new changes - advanced by Infobae - advance amid the difficulties to continue lowering inflation.
After the record of 25.5% in December and registering 20.6% in January, the index fell to 13.2% in February, a drop encouraged by the fall in consumption, the strong recession and the liquefaction of pesos.
In the last 12 months, the increase was 276%.
Although these levels are the highest since the hyperinflation of 1990, the latest data, for the second time, was below market expectations, in a climate of stability also fostered by the fall of financial dollars and an official dollar rising. at 2% monthly.
The Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, projected last week an inflation of "single digits" for the middle of the year.
But the President recognizes that March will be more "complicated."
"You could see a decrease in the deceleration process, but the amount of money is still not growing," Milei acknowledged in an interview with LN+.
In the midst of these fears, Caputo came out to confront food manufacturers for the "excessive" increases in shelves and ordered a kind of "opening of imports" aimed at generating more competition in food, hygiene and cleaning products, and medicines. .
The Secretary of Commerce made official this Monday the suspension of taxes (VAT and Profits) for 120 days for 3,000 products in the basic basket.
And last week, the Central Bank authorized the reduction to 30 days of the period to access official dollars, which implies that the group will open as of April 15.