Argentine shoppers face daily race for deals as inflation soars above
100%
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[September 13, 2023] By
Miguel Lo Bianco and Claudia Martini
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentines, up against painful annual inflation
at 113% and rising, are running a daily gauntlet to find deals and lower
prices as rapid hikes often leave big differences from one shop to the
next, with scattered discounts to lure shoppers.
The South American country is expected to post monthly inflation of near
12% later on Wednesday, which would be the highest since 1991, a figure
that would be eye-watering even as an annual figure in most countries
worldwide.
The fast price rises, exacerbated by a devaluation of
the peso currency last month, are driving a cost-of-living crisis, have
left 40% of people in poverty, and are stoking anger at the traditional
political elite ahead of October elections.
"It's so hard. Each day things costs a little more, it's like always
racing against the clock, searching and searching," said Laura Celiz as
she shopped for groceries in Tapiales on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.
"You buy whatever is cheaper in one place and go to the next place and
buy something else."
Her husband, Fernando Cabrera, 59, was doing sums on a calculator to
compare fruit and vegetable prices.
"In this way we try to beat inflation or at least compete with it a
little," he added.
Argentina is caught in a cycle of economic crises, with a major loss of
confidence in the peso driving steady depreciation, triple-digit
inflation, negative central bank reserves and a flagging economy due to
drought hitting farming.
The country is also battling to salvage a $44 billion deal with the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and facing the prospect of a $16
billion legal bill after a U.S. court ruling related to the state
takeover of energy firm YPF a decade ago.
That's playing into a race towards presidential elections next month,
with radical libertarian Javier Milei the shock frontrunner ahead of
establishment candidates economy minister Sergio Massa and conservative
Patricia Bullrich.
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A costumer counts money before buying tangerines in a green grocery
store, as Argentines struggle amid rising inflation, in Buenos
Aires, Argentina May 11, 2023. REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian/File Photo
And inflation itself could still get worse amid the election
uncertainty, which has revived memories of hyperinflation from the
1980s among those who lived through it.
"Some estimate say it could accelerate to 180%, which is why we are
talking about record inflation levels," said local economic analyst
Damián Di Pace, adding that other nations in the region were
meanwhile seeing inflation cool.
"While the rest of the Latin American countries have single-digit
inflation, Argentina is already in triple-digits."
Business owners, who themselves face a tricky cycle of wholesale
prices rising before they've shipped merchandise and been able to
restock, are also suffering from product shortages due to the
uncertainty of inflation.
Butcher Marcelo Capobianco, 53, fears having to close his business
and is considering emigrating overseas. He displays meat prices in
dollars, the currency that many use as a refuge from the constant
devaluation of the peso.
"It's dramatic. We don't know how we're going to pay the rent this
month, how we're going to pay the electricity," Capobianco said at
his butcher shop in Olivos, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.
"People are angry and have every right to be because they can't
afford to buy a kilo of meat."
"We are already thinking about what we are going to do because, in
reality, if this continues, I think we are going to have to shut up
shop," he said.
(Reporting by Miguel Lo Bianco and Claudia Martini; Writing by
Lucila Sigal; Editing by Nicolás Misculin, Adam Jourdan and Chizu
Nomiyama)
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