He National Institute of Statistics and Census (INDEC) It crosses a moment of sensitive changes after the resignation of two key officials. It’s about Georgina GiglioDirector of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Guillermo Manzanoresponsible for living conditions. Both will leave their positions from September, in a year in which each body data is closely followed by the market, politics and citizenship.
According to official information, Giglio will depart for personal reasons and return to the Provincial Statistics Directorate. Instead, Manzano presented his resignation for differences in criteria and equipment management, which fed versions about tensions with the head of the agency, Lavagna frame. From INDEC, they clarified that the resignations do not respond to external pressures or questions about data manipulation, and they sought to take peace of ensuring that statistics production will not be affected by remarking that they will continue to be published normally and clarified that any methodological change will be informed with its due anticipation.
The positions that are vacant are especially important. The CPI is the reference indicator to measure inflation and the area of living conditions is responsible for the permanent household survey (EPH) and official poverty, employment and income calculations. The relevance of these statistics makes resignations a fact of strong political and economic impact, even more so close to the electoral period.
As for replacements, it was confirmed that Josefina Rim, with experience in the agency and postgraduate studies at Torcuato Di Tella, will assume the address of the CPI as of September 1, while it was not yet designated who will occupy the place of Manzano in the area of living conditions.
Despite official clarifications, criticism and questions to the state entity do not cease to appear. Specialists warn that INDEC continues to work with outstrained CPI baskets, What distorts the measurement of inflation, something that the government could be looking for to obtain measurements that favor it.
In short, resignations highlight the need for Indec quickly solving their internal tensions and guaranteeing stability in key areas. The continuity of the Transparency and Professionalization path initiated during the Mauricio Macri government and sustained to a good extent in recent years, It is essential to preserve the credibility of public statistics.
*Sergio Glowinski is an economist
By Sergio Glowinski
