2023 inflation tops 211pc in economic crisis-torn Argentina

BUENOS AIRES, Jan 12 (AFP): Argentina's annual inflation surged beyond 200 percent in 2023, the statistics agency said Thursday, as the country grapples with an economic crisis new President Javier Milei has vowed to address by slashing state spending.
Monthly inflation in December stood at 25.5 percent, said the INDEC agency, while the annual figure over 12 months was 211.4 percent.
Milei took office in December after winning a resounding election victory on a wave of fury over the country's decades of economic crises marked by debt, rampant money printing, inflation and fiscal deficit.
Shortly after the self-described "anarcho-capitalist" took office, his administration devalued Argentina's peso by more than 50 percent and announced huge cuts in generous state subsidies of fuel and transport.
His government has also done away with a program to control the prices of some goods, introduced by the previous government to try and ease the impact of inflation.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) -- to which Argentina owes $44 billion -- welcomed these measures.
Milei has warned the country is on the brink of hyperinflation, and said economic "shock" treatment was the only solution.
Poverty levels in Latin America's third-biggest economy are at 40 per cent.