Comment by conanbatt | Hacker News Reader

Comment by conanbatt | Hacker News Reader

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.

>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?

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.

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?

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.

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

I think the index says that with 6 pesos a person can be fed, not a family. Still ridiculous, but less.

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