Inflation

[brocolliandtea]

How is everyone coping with this soaring inflation? I spend nearly all I earn on food. I fly through money. And the quality here is so low. Can you imagine the 4 dollar hamburger now costing 13 dollars on your next trip home? Well thats what it is like here! I continue to find the galloping inflation a struggle, like walking through streets choked with pollution and deafening noise, there seems to be no cure for it. Its a constant unpleasantness--Its Argentina.

 

[mini]

Acording to Cristiana you can eat on 4.30 a day. You should stop eating caviar! J/K.

 

[tangobob]

Acording to Cristiana you can eat on 4.30 a day. You should stop eating caviar! J/K.

I think that is her next inflation busting idea; caviar for the masses, that will stop them eating all the beef.

 

[mini]

I think that is her next inflation busting idea; caviar for the masses, that will stop them eating all the beef.

Yeah, but she wants to squish it into a brick and we'll have to wait for the caviar truck to come by and get in line.... I don't know. Back to rice & beans for me then....

 

[brocolliandtea]

Well a little humor is welcome, but seriously, for me, its no joke. Nothing more depressing than going to the supermarket here. Its a reminder of how many things I cant buy, the life I used to have, now rapidly receding. I want to take my dog for a long walk now and would like to go to this modest place that has empanadas I like, but can I afford it? I spend my days drinking tap water and eating the few things I can afford. Is good ice cream really 50 pesos a kilo? A small bag of hamburger meat 21 pesos! The pub that I used to buy 2 beers for 5, can it really be 13 pesos each now? Cable up for the 3rd time in 2 years. The 3.50 raviolis are now 10 in the shop. on and on. Not the land of good living. How do you survive? Ive never been this poor. Now I know why so many here, other than wealthy expats, want to leave.

 

[dennisr]

When Cristina wanted those funds from the Central Bank, she opened a can of worms for Argentina. Think the AR peso is in for quite a ride. Maybe the exchange rate will improve. But the Argentines may not do so well.
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-ma...d-to-buy-euros-to-avoid-ny-embargoes-analysts

 

[mini]

Well, I forgot to mention that I did do my $4.60 per person per day experiment. It could have been planned and documented better. But on average we spent about $6.50 per person per day.

 

[Ashley]

How is everyone coping with this soaring inflation? I spend nearly all I earn on food. I fly through money. And the quality here is so low. Can you imagine the 4 dollar hamburger now costing 13 dollars on your next trip home? Well thats what it is like here! I continue to find the galloping inflation a struggle, like walking through streets choked with pollution and deafening noise, there seems to be no cure for it. Its a constant unpleasantness--Its Argentina.

To be perfectly honest, I don't think there's anything anyone can do about it (on a local salary) apart from sit tight and wait... or leave (I'm still debating the pros and cons of that one!).
I think what puzzles me the most is how local businesses (which I assume rely on locals for the vast majority of their income) manage to survive. Supermarkets and restaurants aside (you have to eat, I guess), I had to buy some new jeans the other day and paid UK mid-range high street prices for some at a run of the mill shop in cabildo. I found a couple of cheaper options (not many and not significantly cheaper) but the quality was outstandingly terrible. Surely, there are not enough people buying 200 peso jeans, 300 peso shoes to keep these places in business??