The annual inflation rate in Argentina reached 211.4% in 2023, which is the highest rate in the last 32 years, the statistical agency INDEC announced.
The data reflected the strong impact of a series of shock measures, including a 50 percent devaluation of the national currency, the Argentine peso, by right-wing President Javier Millay in hopes of bringing soaring inflation under control.
The country’s monthly inflation was 25.5 percent in December, more than double November’s 12.8 percent, but slightly below the 30 percent the government predicted it would be.
Earlier in an interview with a radio station in Buenos Aires, President Millay stated that if the figures show lower inflation than the government predicted, it will be a kind of success.
In his inaugural speech, Millay announced numerous measures aimed at curbing hyperinflation and warned that they would initially have a “negative impact on the level of activity, employment, real wages and the number of poor and needy people in the country.”
It is estimated that today around 40 percent of Argentina’s population lives in poverty, the Beta agency reported.