The head of INDEC, Marco Lavagnacame out on Tuesday to defend the official statistical system in the face of the impact generated on social networks by use by the president and the minister of Economics of the data published by an account slowdown in inflation and the result of ongoing measures.
“Official statistics are an irreplaceable public good. INDEC measures the economic and social phenomena with which the population can make evidence-based decisions, beyond political or ideological interests”said the official, assuring that “for years the Institute has been working to achieve maximum independence in carrying out the statistical service”.
Although Lavagna did not explain the reason for his comments, in the corridors of the organization they read it as a response to the interview in which Javier Milei used the numbers of the user Jumbo Bot as a source of authority. “Price drop! Jockey… price drop!” Milei got emotional in the Neura channel speech when he saw the data published by the Trout account on the screen, and claimed that “the inflation rate is about to collapse”.
Luis Caputo also resorted to this story last Friday when he assured that “the Jumbo Bot gives -5%”, during an interview with Jonatan Viale. But last night, after the interview with Milei, the administrators of the @Bot_Jumbo profile came out to explain that the data published They weren’t real but that it was a “social experiment” that “served one thing: to see the need that many have to show results that reality denies them”.
In this context, the 49-year-old economist who has directed the statistical body since 2019 and kept in his post by Milei, broke the silence he had maintained on the networks since the end of November and this Tuesday underlined that “INDEC works with” methodologies internationally consensual that they are public to guarantee the transparency of their procedures”, and that “protecting them is and should always be a state policy”.
Lavagna, arrived at his position from an agreement between Cristina Kirchner, Alberto Fernández and Sergio Massa, had already felt uneasy about the government’s turn in explaining high prices on shelves. Since March Milei and Caputo have been arguing that 2×1 promotions in supermarkets are not reflected in the INDEC consumer price index (CPI) and that if the indicator were corrected “we would already be in single digits” of inflation.
The head of the statistics agency also came under crossfire last month over February inflation. Amid official obstacles to approve the joint agreement of truckers, Pablo Moyano accused the coach of “drawing” the figure and warned that “no one believes that 13.2%, they live in another reality”. A criticism that Milei came across on the networks: “This is what a Kirchnerist confirms when the inflation data (given the context) have a very positive dynamic…”.
Another factor that may have added tension is the government’s decision to start disseminating the CPI in advance. Both the President and Caputo have estimated in the last few hours that inflation in March (which will be known on Friday) will be around 10%, slightly lower than that of February. All this in a context in which the minister has launched an investigation into prepaid companies after implementing tariff increases of 160% in four months of deep recession.
As soon as it took office, the government announced that it would work on a project that INDEC ceases to function under the orbit of the Ministry of Economy and be a “depoliticized technical” entity. But instead of moving forward with this initiative, 150 employees were laid off as part of the adjustment. “The sanction of the new law that consolidates that independence achieved, and that the organization possesses today, will be the guarantee that this is the case”, concluded the head of the organization.
Source: Clarin
