The Argentine central bank’s first quarter inflation report contains many insights into the authorities’ views of how Latin America’s No. 3 economy will perform this year, but has almost nothing to say about inflation itself.

The 27-page report does not contain an estimate for the pace of price rises this year and also glosses over exactly how much prices rose in 2010 – which is just as well, considering that the official rate of 10.9 per cent is disregarded by the market and private economists, who say the real level is more than double that and likely to be approaching 30 per cent in 2011. Continue reading »