Friday, November 22, 2013

El Dinero

I took a picture recently of the new $100 peso, next to one of the old ones.
The new bill features Eva Perón, whom you probably equate with Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Evita", if you think of her at all.

I have no desire to get into what kind of a woman she was, or what role she played in Argentine history. I'd rather take a more pedestrian view of the new bill: What can I buy with it?

If you're my friend on facebook, you'll have already seen this link. We've known that inflation has been an ongoing problem here, and we knew we were spending more at the store, but we've never taken the time to figure out just how much more. This article breaks it down, showing what $100 pesos would buy three years ago compared to what you can get now.

2010
liter of milk 
1/2 kilo coffee
kilo of yerba (tea)
1/2 kilo of sugar
bread
package of pasta 
bottle of pop
cooking oil
1/2 kilo milanesa (meat)
a yogurt
bleach
4 roll package of toilet paper

2013
liter of milk
package of pasta
cooking oil
1/2 kilo milanesa (meat)
a yogurt
4 roll package of toilet paper

Half the items are missing from the second list: coffee, tea, sugar, bread, pop and bleach. 

Makes me wonder what $100 pesos will buy three years from now. 

4 comments:

The Bug said...

Pretty scary!

Mari said...

Wow - that really shows how much inflation is going on. Not good!

riTa Koch said...

I remember hearing of the times when inflation was so bad and so rapid that as you were shopping they would announce that milk had gone up so much...

Lhoyt said...

November 1975, we arrived in Argentina. During that month we purchased our furniture, and at one place where we bought most of it, I asked for a discount for a cash purchase (though we did not do it, most people were buying their large items with postdated checks, many of which had already collected 8-10 countersignatures (i.e. they were no longer just third party checks, but eighth and tenth) The salesmans response, after talking it over with his boss, was that the discount was that they would hold the same price until that evening. That year, they had stopped counting at 1500% inflation.