Argentines seek strategies to survive inflation above 100%

Argentines go to food markets in search of lower prices that allow them to avoid a inflation annual rate of 102%, one of the highest rates in the world, which will affect the presidential elections in October.

In the midst of a delicate financial situation, Argentina reported on Tuesday that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 6.6% in February and accumulated a 102.5% in one year, exceeding 100% for the first time since the hyperinflation period of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

“Yes, I found out that it is 100% annually and you can’t, you can’t. Let them all go like this. I’m tired of all this, of the politicians who fight and the people who starve. It no longer gives for more “Patricia Quiroga, a neighbor who was looking for prices at a food fair in San Fernando, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, told Reuters.

The annual inflation level revealed on Tuesday by the official statistics institute, INDEC, is the highest since the 115% Registered in September 1991.

High inflation, which ended in 95% in 2022 despite the Government’s efforts to limit it, it has pushed a part of the population into poverty above 40%, in addition to generating bad mood and extra efforts among Argentines to make ends meet.

“There is no money, people don’t have it and so how do you buy? The other days I came and told him: ‘Give me 3 tangerines, 2 oranges, 2 bananas and half a kilo of tomatoes’”recounted Irene Devita, 74, in a market.

“When he told me that it cost 650 pesos (3.25 dollars), I told him ‘take everything out and leave me the tomatoes because I don’t have any more money’”he added, describing a situation that millions of Argentines experience daily.

According to polls, inflation is one of the issues that worries the population the most and is likely to harm the current Peronist administration in the general elections next October, for which the center-right opposition would have a better chance.

Source: Reuters