In recent years, Argentina has witnessed multiple and diverse price variations in goods and services, wages, pensions, and dollar exchange rates. In this context, understanding the evolution of relative prices can be a daunting and complex task.
At Infodash we set out to build an interactive dashboard where you can monitor the evolution of these key variables, with the ability to filter by different periods and modify both the reference variable and the base period.
For prices and wages, we use data from the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INDEC); for the dollar, we use the Contado con Liquidacion (CCL) exchange rate published by Ambito; and for pensions and the Universal Child Allowance, we use data from the National Social Security Administration (ANSES).
The dashboard allows filtering from January 2017 to the latest available data point. The "aggregation level" filter allows for greater or lesser disaggregation of items. In the chart, you will always see three dotted lines: overall inflation in black, CCL variation in red, and wage variation in blue.
For example, from (the start of) January 2024 to (the end of) July 2024, accumulated inflation reached 87.1%, while the dollar rose 41.6%. All goods and services divisions had a higher increase than the dollar, evidencing a price increase in foreign currency terms. Using the latest wage data (May 2024), it is noticeable that half of the divisions lost in purchasing power terms. Some of those that gained include food, alcoholic beverages, housing rent, among others.
The dashboard allows answering all these types of questions for different periods: What has become more expensive than average in recent months? Does that product or group always lead the generalized price increase? Is it true that Argentina has become particularly more expensive in dollar terms in recent months?
