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.
