The South American country, which has struggled with rising prices for years, recorded annual inflation of 98.8 percent.
Argentina’s inflation rate has hit nearly 100 percent, the government said on Tuesday, with savers feeling more pain from some of the world’s fastest rising prices and workers’ budgets strained as costs exceed salaries.
The South American country, which has struggled with rising prices for years, recorded a monthly inflation rate of up to 6 percent as forecast in January, while the annual figure hit 98.8 percent, the highest since hyperinflation in the 1990s.
Gisella Saluzzo, 30, a doctor in Buenos Aires, had to tighten her belt.
“The truth is that I live day by day, looking for low prices, going to markets. We look for where the meat is cheaper, where the vegetables are cheaper and hunt for online promotions to make ends meet,” she told Portal.
Rampant inflation has crippled the economy and forced the central bank to raise interest rates to a staggering 75 percent. The popularity of President Alberto Fernandez’s centre-left Peronist government ahead of October’s general election has surged. The conservative opposition is now leading the polls as Argentines are fed up with inflation and many blame the government’s poor economic management and money printing.
Brian Muliane, a 33-year-old chiropractor, said his company was struggling to survive between inflation and taxes.
“In our work, they drown us, between paying for one thing and another, along with the taxes,” he said. “There are many who cannot even work.”
Inflation ended at 95 percent in 2022 and could accelerate this year despite government action to combat it. Many have been forced to change their shopping habits and limit luxury items.
“There are things I stop buying because I say no, it’s just impossible for them to gain weight like that,” said Andrea Mendoza, a 50-year-old teacher while shopping. “So I don’t buy some things, I change habits or I buy offers.”