National Institute of Statistics and Census of Argentina

The Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos (abbreviation INDEC, German National Institute of Statistics and Census ), the Argentine Bureau of Statistics.

Two of the many fields of activity are illustrative:

  • Censuses ( Censos ), which take place every ten years. This is determined through home visits with in-depth interviews not only the population but also the ethnic composition and the professional and homely conditions of the Argentines;
  • The Encuesta de hogares permanent, an ever- made ​​survey, however, is limited only to the largest metropolitan areas of Argentina. It is used to determine socio -economic data such as unemployment and poverty rates. This data is published every six months.

Intervention Affair 2007

In February 2007, against the backdrop of high inflation, has been replaced by the government of Néstor Kirchner, the Commissioner for the determination of the price index. Thereupon inspired protest among the staff of the Institute, the government accused to exert pressure on them to indicate in the monthly price development report a lower inflation rate than the measured, so beautiful to the numbers. As a result, joined the chairman of the institute, Lelio Mármora back. In March, the inflation rate was subsequently corrected downwards by the Institute, so that the credibility of the institution took strong damage. In response, in mid-April was the management of the institution changed again by the Economy Minister Felisa Miceli, restore with the objective of ensuring transparency and credibility.

Since then, the Argentine statistics office INDEC was heavily criticized in terms of the measurement of the rate of inflation. The INDEC and the government is accused of going to gloss over the inflation rate. Some economists went for 2007 by a real inflation rate of nearly 20% to even 23% off. These are 12 to 15 percentage points more than the official inflation rate of 8%.

An analysis of the Faculty of Economics at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba came in early 2009 on the result, the rate of inflation (according to the consumer price index IPC) in 2008 had amounted to 23.05 %, compared to 7.2%, specified by the INDEC. A serious problem was, according to the authors of the study also that both the consumer price index and the also doubted wholesale price index could also affect the official calculation of gross domestic product. Thus, real economic growth in 2008 is not 7.2%, but only 5.95% had amounted according to the calculations of the UNC.

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