Brazil & Southern Cone - March 2011 (ISSN 1741-4431)

According to the national statistics institute (Indec), inflation in February was 0.7%, bringing total inflation in 2011 to 1.5%. The basic basket of goods, which provides the measurement to set the poverty line, increased by 0.5%, while the basic food basket, which determines indigence, increased by 0.02%. These figures, however, are highly contested by private consultants and the Indec's own provincial offices (see sidebar). For example, Buenos Aires City, the consultancy led by Graciela Bevacqua, who until 2008 was the director of the Indec's consumer price index (IPC), registered inflation of 1.6% in February and 3.6% for the first two months of 2011. Bevacqua and several private consultants, who have been fined astronomical sums by Secretary of Domestic Trade Guillermo Moreno for their publication of independent indices, have turned to congress and the judiciary to put a stop to what they describe as political persecution for their disagreement with Indec official figures.

End of preview - This article contains approximately 158 words.

Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article

Not a Subscriber?

Choose from one of the following options

• Subscribe
• Sign up for a one-time, 14-day trial