Press Release No. 10/499

Press Release: Statement by an IMF Technical Mission to Argentina

December 16, 2010

Robert Rennhack, assistant director in the Western Hemisphere Department of the International Monetary Fund, issued the following statement today in Buenos Aires:

“An IMF mission visited Buenos Aires between December 8–16 at the request of the Argentine authorities to advise the national statistics agency INDEC on the design and methodology of a new national consumer price index.

“The mission held extensive and cordial technical discussions with INDEC and would like to thank its staff for their time and effort. We also met with several private sector users of the official data and some academic experts.

“As is typical with IMF technical assistance missions, the team did not make any recommendations at this stage. The mission discussed a plan for the next steps with INDEC and will probably make two more visits to Argentina over the coming months with a view to presenting its final conclusions and recommendations to the authorities sometime in April.”