\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t Updated Monday 5.15 p.m.<\/p>\n
Marco Lavagna resigned unexpectedly as director of Argentina\u2019s statistics institute INDEC on Monday.<\/p>\n
The news comes just eight days before the institute was set to publish January\u2019s inflation figures, calculated with a formula INDEC authorities said would better reflect purchasing power.<\/p>\n
However, hours after Lavagna\u2019s exit, Economy Minister Luis Caputo said the new index would only be implemented \u201conce the disinflation process is fully consolidated.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur view is that the index should not be changed now. In fact, it makes little difference,\u201d he said in an interview with Radio Rivadavia.<\/p>\n
Caputo said Lavagna will be replaced by Pedro Lines, who has served in the INDEC since 2016 and has been its technical director since 2018.<\/p>\n
Differing views Lavagna\u2019s announcement surprised a great deal of government officials and workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are appalled,\u201d said Ra\u00fal Llaneza, deputy secretary-general of the State Workers\u2019 Association union and a union representative for INDEC.<\/p>\n
Llaneza added that Caputo\u2019s announcement that the INDEC would finally not publish January\u2019s inflation rate with the updated methodology doesn\u2019t give workers \u201cpeace of mind,\u201d as everything was \u201cup and running\u201d to implement it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe find it strange, a justification that lacks technical rigor \u2014 it\u2019s political, and we don\u2019t think it\u2019s right,\u201d said Llaneza.<\/p>\n
Not all, however, were displeased with the Lavagna\u2019s departure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A source from the Milei administration accused the economist, who was appointed in 2019 by then-President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez and did not step down when Javier Milei took office, of working for former Economy Minister Sergio Massa.<\/p>\n
The source added that Lavagna was also at loggerheads with Milei\u2019s economy minister, Luis Caputo, and several other officials.<\/p>\n
In his resignation letter, Lavagna thanked the INDEC\u2019s workers and said that, during his six-year tenure, the institute \u201cmade progress in improving public statistics and the national statistical system.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that \u201ceconomic and social realities are constantly changing and that the national statistical system needs to continue adapting and strengthening itself.\u201d He highlighted that some INDEC projects along those lines are \u201chighly developed,\u201d while others \u201care still in progress.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two key INDEC directors resigned over the past year \u2014 Guillermo Manzano (Living Conditions Statistics) and Georgina Giglio (Consumer Price Index).<\/p>\n
Inflation, a hot topic in Argentina Inflation and the way it is measured are hot topics in Argentina. Traditionally meant as an institution to operate independently from the government, the INDEC suffered an intervention during Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner\u2019s two presidential terms (2007-2015) and produced unreliable data.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis feels like d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu because on a similar date in 2007, our organization was politically intervened because they did not like the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for January 2007,\u201d Llaneza told the Herald.<\/p>\n
Milei was elected on a platform to \u201cexterminate inflation,\u201d as prices rose by 211.4% in 2023, the year he took office. Annual inflation cooled to 31.5% in 2025, which, although still high for international standards, was 180 points lower than it was two years prior.<\/p>\n
Critics, however, have said that the way the INDEC has been measuring inflation during Milei\u2019s presidency delivers a faulty index as it is based on a basket of goods and services originally drafted in 2004.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The new index, which was set to debut on Tuesday, 10, was calculated using a 2017-2018 basket. The major difference is that the current method will assign more weight to the cost of services and transportation. The government even had pledged to change the index to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2026.<\/p>\n
The Center of Argentine Political Economy (CEPA) estimated that, if this methodology had been used over the past two years, inflation would have increased by an extra 11% overall since December 2023.<\/p>\n
According to Caputo, potential declines in inflation with the new index could be interpreted as \u201cnot due to economic performance but to the change in measurement,\u201d which is why the government chose not to go ahead with the change.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Caputo said that Lavagna resigned because of this decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe president and I always shared the view that change had to be implemented once the disinflation process was fully consolidated,\u201d Caputo said, adding that, in May last year, he thought that in January 2026 the country would be better off.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, he said that did not happen due to last year\u2019s \u201cpolitical attack\u201d in the run-up to the legislative elections.<\/p>\n
Union representative Llaneza called Caputo\u2019s explanation \u201cawkward.\u201d He also added that Lavagna\u2019s resignation has affected INDEC staff, as the news comes at a moment in which the agency will be \u201cat the center of public opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAlarmed\u201d is how he described the workers\u2019 state of mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have historically demanded an INDEC that is independent of political power,\u201d he went on to say.<\/p>\n
Lavagna\u2019s professional work has also come under fire from some Milei officials. The source in the national administration said that the former INDEC head miscalculated the tourist balance, an index that measures outbound and inbound tourism.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The figure has been in the spotlight due to its showing that Argentina is losing millions of dollars as the propped-up peso makes it cheaper to travel to foreign destinations, such as Brazil.<\/p>\n
The tourist balance was such a point of contention within the government that the Tourism Secretariat decided to stop financing the INDEC to produce the report.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoreover, with the new [inflation] measurement system, a different [professional] profile is needed,\u201d the source added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Updated Monday 5.15 p.m. Marco Lavagna resigned unexpectedly as director of Argentina\u2019s statistics institute INDEC on Monday. The news comes just eight days before the institute was set to publish January\u2019s inflation figures, calculated with a formula INDEC authorities said would better reflect purchasing power. However, hours after Lavagna\u2019s exit, Economy Minister Luis Caputo said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":31638,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,3183,690,4436,1199],"tags":[96,4434,3152,4435,1195],"class_list":["post-31637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economics","category-indec","category-inflation","category-marco-lavagna","category-the-rosca","tag-economics","tag-indec","tag-inflation","tag-marco-lavagna","tag-the-rosca"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}