By Karina Grazina for Reuters.comArgentine President Cristina Fernandez is using strong-arm tactics to stifle surging inflation, ordering businesses not to raise prices and pressuring economists over their independent forecasts.
Inflation is estimated at 25 percent a year by private forecasters, posing a threat to Argentina's economic boom and worrying voters eight months from a presidential election in which Fernandez is expected to seek another term.
The center-left leader seems intent on blunting one of the opposition's best weapons against her by blaming retailers and manufacturers for rising prices, reverting to an approach critics say has deterred investment in the past.
"We can't continue with the farce of reading the newspaper and seeing shopkeepers and businessmen complaining because prices are going up and then blaming the government," Fernandez, who has a wide lead in polls, said on Wednesday.
"I don't sell anything. I don't produce tomatoes, I don't sell cars, I don't produce steel, I don't produce cement," she said, touching on a subject her government usually avoids.
Before October's vote, Fernandez is likely to stay focused on growth over battling inflation, a word Economy Minister Amado Boudou rarely uses, referring instead to "price dispersal."
Boudou, like Fernandez, has recommended shoppers head to the..Read full article
