Economy Minister Axel Kicillof with heads of INDEC (photo: Raúl Ferrari/Télam/ddc)
New Consumer Price Index Notes 3.7% Inflation: In a joint press conference with the national statistics agency INDEC, Economy Minister Axel Kicillof announced the first results of Argentina’s new Consumer Price Index (IPC-Nu), which showed prices rose 3.7% during the month of January. The IPC-Nu replaced the IPC-GBA at the end of last year, and is hoped to reflect variations in prices more accurately, using a new IMF-approved methodology. While the average price rise was 3.7%, Kicillof gave a breakdown of the price rises, which showed disparities between different sectors: food and drinks rose by 3.3%; clothing 0.8%; housing and basic services 2.2%; furniture and homeware 4.3%; medical attention and healthcare 5.9%; transport and communications 5.4%; leisure 4.8%; education 1.6% and other goods and services 1.6%. Referring to the price rises, he said that there had been a “climate of psychosis” in the country since December, which had led to big shifts in prices in the first month of the year, which could be largely attributed to speculation. The inflation figure is much closer to that of private indexes, which registered a rise of 4.6% during January. Critics have noted that if the pattern continues, the annual inflation figure will be around 40%.
La Salada on ‘Notorious Markets’ List: Argentina’s La Salada, the largest black market in South America, has featured on the United States’ Notorious Markets List for the fourth year running. The 2013 Out of Cycle review of Notorious Markets, published today, compiled a list of online and physical spaces known for trademark counterfeiting and copyright piracy on a commercial scale, which cause “significant losses for rights holders and legitimate businesses”. All the physical marketplaces listed were in Asia or Latin America, with La Salada accompanied in the Americas by Paraguay’s Ciudad del Este, Mexico’s Tepito market in Mexico City and San Juan de Dios in Guadalajara, Ecuador’s Bahia Market in Guayaquil and Colombia’s chain of San Andresitos markets, in Bogotá, Cali and other cities. La Salada is noted as being the largest market in Latin America, and was recently noted by the European Union as being the region’s largest smuggling centre.
Journalists Threatened in Mendoza: Mendozan authorities have granted police protection to three journalists after a concrete threat was revealed against three journalists from the provincial newspaper El Sol. The threat comes from a drug trafficking gang known as Los Angelitos de la Yaqui, who are suspected of running a cartel in west Godoy Cruz. The journalists had been investigating the gang’s role in the drug trade, and it would appear that Sandra Yaquelina Vargas, who is said to be the leader of the gang, told her “angelitos” to con “something” to the journalists. Provincial prosecutor, Claudia Ríos, who granted the journalists’ protection, is now investigating the gang.