BUENOS AIRES, Feb 14 (Reuters) – Argentines are increasingly feeling the impact of one of the highest rates of inflation in the world, with annual price hikes of nearly 100% stretching the pockets of consumers, whose salary increases are lower than those of food, energy and services.
The South American country, which has suffered from high inflation for years, will announce the price index for January on Tuesday, which is expected to be close to 6% and would bring the rate for the past 12 months to almost triple digits.
“The truth is that I try to live from day to day. I look for prices, I browse the markets, we look for where the meat is cheaper, the vegetables cheaper, we play with promotions”, Gisella Saluzzo, thirty years old. -old doctor, told Reuters years living in Buenos Aires.
Very high inflation is weighing on the economy and has forced the Central Bank to raise interest rates to an incredible 75%. It has also eaten away at the popularity of Peronist President Alberto Fernández.
Consumer prices could be a key factor in the October presidential election, in which the center-right opposition has a margin of advantage, according to polls. Argentines are fed up with inflation and many point to the official management of the economy as the culprit.
Brian Muliane, a 33-year-old chiropractor, said between inflation and taxes, his business was struggling to survive. “Between the taxes, (that) I pay here and I pay there, they drown you out and they don’t let you work,” he explained.
High inflation, which ended at 95% in 2022 and could accelerate this year despite official measures to limit rising prices, has forced many people to change their shopping habits and restrict their consumption. of luxury goods.
“I buy week after week because I don’t make a big purchase anymore,” Andrea Mendoza, a 50-year-old teacher, said while shopping. “There are things I stop buying because I say no, it’s impossible to increase like that. I don’t buy, I change my habits,” he said. (Reporting by Miguel Lo Bianco and Horacio Soria; Writing by Adam Jourdan; Translated by Maximilian Heath; Editing by Nicolás Misculin)