The Economist's take on the 6 peso diet

[Joe]

On August 10th Argentina’s national statistics agency declared that a family of four should be considered above the poverty line if its monthly food bill exceeded 688 pesos, equal to about six pesos per person per day. But a study by the University of Buenos Aires puts the minimum daily budget for a healthy diet at 24 pesos per person, four times the official figure

The six-peso diet

 

[juampi123]

I'm casually an economics student at the University of Buenos Aires, and yea, our national statistic agency ( INDEC) cheats the numbers again and again, mostly to hide the big inflation that is currently of 25%, but they say its 10 % . you wanna know the reason why they do it? well, some bonds prices are tied to the prices level indicator, so if inflation goes high they gotta pay the boneholders more than the double of the bond rent . So, cheating the number they can save ( or steal) a lots of money . But well, everyones know that INDEC lies , so that's not a great new ,haha

 

[AHansen]

I thought The Economist article was poorly researched, although I understand their articles are meant to be succinct. So I wrote my own explanation about INDEC and the 6 peso diet for my friends back home on my expat blog: http://vivirbaires.tumblr.com/post/31610106793/living-on-1-a-day-in-argentina