

Argentines are now allowed to know the real rate of inflation - wslh
http://qz.com/84838/argentines-are-now-allowed-to-know-the-real-rate-of-inflation-thanks-to-their-courts/

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wslh
This is a chart comparing the "official inflation" vs. an unofficial one:
<http://www.pricestats.com/argentina-series>

Also, the government forces McDonald's to keep the price of the Big Mac low
for statistical reasons. You will not find the typical Big Mac advertised. It
appears in a small McDonald's menu because the advertised one is a "Triple Big
Mac" with an adjusted price. Bizarre?

~~~
GeZe
More specifically, this has to do with the Big Mac Index by The Economist.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mac_Index>

<http://www.economist.com/content/big-mac-index>

~~~
heyitsnick
Further to this, the Economist stopped publishing Argentina's consumer price
index numbers in from INDEC in Feb 2012 numbers due to government
involvement::

<http://www.economist.com/node/21548242>

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salimmadjd
In US from late 90s to mid 2000s the price of housing kept increasing, dollar
vs. euro plunged and dollar vs. many commodities dropped as well. But some how
there was very low inflation???

~~~
diminish
The truth is; many countries (known examples; US, China, India, Turkey,
Argentina) , significantly manipulate inflation and jobless stats, by playing
with the contents and weight of the baskets used or definitions of job
seekers/willingness to work.

The economist's spotlight on Argentina is due to the British establishment's
dislike of the currently elected Argentinian government and England/Argentina
tensions of the past decades.

~~~
wslh
> The economist's spotlight on Argentina is due to the British establishment's
> dislike of the currently elected Argentinian government and
> England/Argentina tensions of the past decades.

Indeed the current situation in Argentina is very extreme in terms of
democracy: people being prosecuted for thinking differently, the government
building an explicit criminal association. The conflict with the Falklands is
finished and the Argentinisn government uses it as smokescreen.

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anuraj
Just wondering when Indians will get to know the same!

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narad
Spot on.. I changed the country name from Argentina to India in the price
stats URL.

Alas! It's 404.

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conanbatt
This isnt actually true. Unfortunatenly, private inflation offices dont have
neither the manpower or the expertise to produce statistics as the official
Indec organisation, so their numbers are also hard to trust.

More important than this, currently in argentina you dont have the ability to
buy foreign currency, and not knowing what the inflation is (but perceiving it
very high) is one of the factors that contributes to the raise of black market
dollars, and buying dollars with credit cards and selling them in the black
market pays off half a paycheck in a day for many people.

ADDITION: there is no doubt in anyones mind that the Indec is grossly
manipulated. They claimed today that with 6 pesos (about 1.2 dollars) you can
feed a family of four. A Regular combo in Burguer King or Mc'Donalds is
between 50-60 pesos. A 1 litre coca-cola costs 10 pesos in a cheap
supermarket.

~~~
wslh
>This isnt actually true. Unfortunatenly, private inflation offices dont have
neither the manpower or the expertise to produce statistics as the official
Indec organisation, so their numbers are also hard to trust.

They are not hard to trust because every Argentinian that goes to the
supermarket knows about it. And you have the data scraped to analyze it
yourself. I can quickly compare tickets from years ago.

It is truth that is very difficult to do statistics at a country scale but if
the Government says that 1 + 1 = 4 and you say it is 2.15, who is closer?

~~~
conanbatt
Thats anecdotical evidence. 10% inflation can also be felt on a supermarket.

Private inflation offices also gain money by providing high numbers, as they
tell what other people want to hear.

The reality is that the Central bank prints money at an accelerated pace and
that there is inflation between 10% to 30%. "closer" is not enough for me.

~~~
wslh
Indeed there is not such thing as an inflation precise calculation that makes
everyone happy. There are many different approaches to the inflation problem:
do you take into account real state? even if few people can buy a house?

~~~
conanbatt
I dont know how to make an index, and I dont trust Indec or private offices.
Thats why I refute the claim that "now we have an inflation index" by the
economist.

We dont.

Also, the economist had published an article called Gaucho "Blues" about the
blue market in argentina, and it has been taken down. Thats a red flag.

~~~
wslh
At the end it doesn't matter how to calculate the index, what matters is if
you can live with your salary.

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zfran
meh. Nice to see some rationality but the real rate of inflation measured by
private entities never stopped being published by senators in congress taking
advantage of their immunity.

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TomatoTomato
Bitcoin exchange rate going up in 3...2...1...

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blocking_io
Bitcoin is of course renound for stability.

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GFischer
Compared to latin american currencies, it's a safe haven :)

I've seen the Old Peso, the New Peso, and the (Newest) Peso (which was an
exchange rate of 1000 to one, to remove zeroes from the bills), and I'm only
32 years old.

Same for Brazil, they had the Cruzeiro, Cruzado and Real.

Argentina had several different Pesos (Peso Ley, Peso Fuerte, Peso
Convertible) and the Austral.

