The country’s inflation has not exceeded 100 percent in more than three decades, while the value of the Argentine currency plummets.
Inflation in the South American country of Argentina has topped 100 percent for the first time since 1991, according to the government’s latest consumer price index.
The National Institute of Statistics and Census (INDEC) announced its february report on Tuesday, pointing to Argentina’s annual inflation at 102.5 percent as the country continues to suffer one of its worst economic crises in decades.
In February alone, inflation rose 6.6 percent, with food and beverages identified as the hardest-hit category of items. INDEC attributed the 9.8 percent rise in food costs to high prices for meat, dairy products and eggs.
The last inflationary jump comes when Argentina faces a historic droughtthe worst in almost 60 years, and forest fires in areas such as the north of the province of Corrientes.
The country is leading soybean exporteralong with the United States and Brazil, in addition to other agricultural products such as corn, wheat and other grains.
But with crop failures in Argentina’s fertile grasslands known as the Pampas, industry insiders have slashed the country’s expected amount. agricultural yields at levels not seen since the turn of the century. High temperatures, believed to be caused by climate change, have plagued the country since May 2022.
Argentina has the second largest economy in South America. But for much of the past century, its market has been notoriously volatile, with a debt crisis in the 1980s leading to chronic hyperinflation throughout that decade.
The inflationary crisis peaked in 1989 with rates topping 3,000 percent at certain points.
Struggling with its mounting international debt, Argentina arranged a controversial deal in 2018 with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for more than $57 billion in credit, the largest loan package in the fund’s history.
But inflation has risen since 2018 and the country has struggled to keep up with its payment plan. A new $44 billion loan agreement was reached with the IMF in 2022, to replace the 2018 plan.
On Monday, the IMF Announced had reached a “personnel-level agreement” to ease the country’s economic targets under the new debt plan, citing “the challenges of an increasingly severe drought.”
Speaking to the Reuters news agency, shoppers on the outskirts of the capital Buenos Aires expressed frustration with Argentina’s economic difficulties and the cost of living it was charging.
“There’s just nothing left. There is no money. People don’t have anything, so how do they buy? said Irene Devita, a 74-year-old retiree who shops for groceries.
She told Reuters she was recently forced to forego a planned tomato purchase because food costs were beyond her ability to pay.
Another shopper, Patricia Quiroga, 50, expressed her frustration at the apparent inability of politicians to reduce inflation.
“I’m tired, tired, just tired of all this, of politicians fighting while people starve,” she told Reuters. “This can’t go on any longer.”
Argentina is scheduled to hold general elections, including for president, this October.
