Filling the Gap in Argentina's Inflation Data

Abstract

The official consumer price index (CPI) of Argentina became widely discredited after January 2007 and the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses of Argentina (INDEC) ceased its production in December 2015, leaving the country with no official measure of inflation after this date. This gap in official data poses a major problem for researchers and policymakers who need access to longer time series. In this paper, we provide a consumer price index that uses official CPI data from 1943 to 2007 and chain it to an online price index which spans from 2007 to the present. The chained index will be updated regularly on a monthly basis until a new official CPI is released.

Keywords: Argentina, Inflation, INDEC, Online Price Index

JEL Classification: E31