Argentina's Inflation Rate Hit 95% In 2022

Argentina closed the year with annual inflation shooting to 95%, bringing the South American country narrowly outside the five triple-digit inflation nations globally, Lucinda Elliott reported for the Financial Times.

Photo Insert: Argentina sits among the six countries that experienced the highest rates last year.

Prices rose by 5.1% in December 2022, increasing slightly after three consecutive months of decline and bringing the 12-month figure to 94.8%, according to the government statistics agency Indec.

That was the highest rate since 1991, when the country was emerging from a hyperinflation crisis.

Soaring prices have largely been attributed to a bout of central bank money-printing, as well as Russia’s war in Ukraine. Argentina sits among the six countries that experienced the highest rates last year, but is behind Zimbabwe, Lebanon, Venezuela, Syria, and Sudan, which experienced triple-digit inflation last year.

Argentina’s finance minister, Sergio Massa, attributed the modest decline in December to a price control scheme known as “Fair Prices” or “Precios Justos,” which has temporarily frozen the cost of over 1,700 goods until December 2023.

Similar price controls introduced in 2021 failed to curb inflation. The minister added that monthly price rises could start to fall, to 3% by April.

Economists widely expect inflation in Argentina to remain stubbornly high throughout 2023 as the country enters a presidential election year and are skeptical of the effectiveness of the latest government measures.

WEEKLY FEATURE : MVP Group Keeps Lights On During Pandemic