The quality of the statistics presented by Argentina “is diverting from the standard international regulations,” the spokeswoman of the International Monetary Fund, Jennifer Beckman, said when she was asked how she could explain the difference between the official inflation data reported by the INDEC, and the one estimated by private analysts, which reaches 25 percent.
The spokeswoman avoided to give her opinion over the data presented by private analysts but assured that the IMF has questioned the information given by the government. This is the reason why “the staff of the IMF will use alternative measures on the inflation and GDP in its supervision, besides using the official information, until the quality of the data improves.”
Previously, the Fund had changed its attitude over this issue when it examined the quality of Argentina’s Price Index (IPC) and the GDP in mid July. According to Beckman, Argentina’s authorities “had committed to strictly collaborate with the IMF staff to improve the reports of the IPC and GDP in order to adapt them to the obligations established in the organization’s Constitutive Agreement.” She also added that “since then, the authorities and the Fund’s staff had worked together to identify specific measures to reach this aim.”
While the IMF World Economic Outlook (WEO) was headed by Dominique Strauss Kahn, the organization used to call the country to state that Argentina’s inflation and economy were different to the rate estimated by private agencies. To solve this problem, the Fund would bring its technical advice to Argentina for the elaboration of the National Price Index.
Nevertheless, the situation changed when Christine Lagarde took office as the head of the organization. After a phone call she had with President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the IMF director board published a communiqué where it reminded that is mandatory that the countries which are part of the Fund have to “report correct information to the International Monetary Fund.”
The communiqué also stated that the expiration date was “180 days – meaning, until January 2012 – to evaluate the progress reached and to decide which measures are the ones needed based in the recommendations of the technical staff.”
According to sources in Washington, Lagarde might have insisted in the need of clarifying the suspicions over the data presented by Argentina because, as she said in the Annual Assembly, “the IMF is not willing to compromise the statistics’ quality.”
Meanwhile, the Fund has decided to use the private and provincial statistics for their analysis and reports.
It seems as if the Fund and the government talk about different things. According to the Indec national statistics bureau, the National Price Index will be settled in 2013, but the Director board stated in a communiqué in mid July that the IMF gave Argentina 180 days to apply it. Unless the Indec changes its aims by December, it looks like the IMF will have to continue working with the private and provincial statistics.
By Liliana Franco.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald