Argentina Files Criminal Charges Against Company for ‘False’ CPI Reports

[naaman fletcher]

Argentina stepped up its pressure on economists who say the government has underestimated inflation in its official reports for more than four years by filing criminal charges against research company M&S Consultores SA.

Interior Commerce Secretary Guillermo Moreno filed charges against M&S on July 8, saying the company stood to profit by claiming prices in South America’s second-biggest economy are rising faster than the 9.7 percent annual rate reported by the national statistics institute. In February the government began fining economists 500,000 pesos ($121,000) for saying prices were rising as much as 25 percent per year.

“The false information generated by the consultant, intended to benefit not only the company but agents in the financial market who are clients of the company, with extraordinary profits, does damage to consumers and the state,” according to a statement on the government’s website. “If M&S were successful in convincing the community of the veracity of its inflation, we would have an annual adjustment of between 12 percent and 23 percent over current values.”

A call to M&S Consultores’s Buenos Aires office after regular business hours wasn’t answered.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-11/argentina-files-criminal-charges-against-company-for-false-cpi-reports.html

A scary precedent. Believe what the government says or else!!!!