Commentary
The most dangerous words in monetary policy and economics are “this time is different.” The big mistake of politicians in Argentina is to believe that inflation is multi-causal and that everything is solved with increasing doses of interventionism.
The consumer price index in Argentina experienced a year-on-year rise of 58 percent in April 2022, which means 2.9 percentage points above the variation registered in March. A real catastrophe. Inflation in Argentina is around six times higher than that of Uruguay and five times higher than that of Chile, Brazil, or Paraguay, neighboring countries exposed to the same global problems.
No, inflation in Argentina is not multi-causal, it only has one cause: an extractive and confiscatory monetary policy—printing pesos without control and without demand. Argentina is ballooning its monetary base to finance excessive, inflated, and destructive public spending….