Argentinas INDEC head steps down on heels of new index debut

Marco Lavagna resigned unexpectedly as director of Argentina’s statistics institute INDEC on Monday.  The news comes just eight days before the institute is set to publish January’s inflation figures, calculated with a formula INDEC authorities say will better reflect purchasing power. The news surprised government officials and workers.  “We are appalled,” said Raúl Llaneza, deputy secretary-general of the State Workers’ Association union and a union representative for INDEC.  Lavagna was appointed in 2019 by then-President Alberto Fernández and did not step down when Javier Milei took office. Inflation, a hot topic in Argentina Inflation and the way it is measured are hot topics in Argentina. Traditionally meant as an institution to operate independently from the government, the INDEC suffered an intervention during Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s two presidential terms (2007-2015) and produced unreliable data. “This feels like déjà vu because on a similar date in 2007, our organization was politically intervened because they did not like the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for January 2007,” Llaneza told the Herald. Milei was elected on a platform to “exterminate inflation,” as prices rose by 211.4% in 2023, the year he took office. Annual inflation cooled down to 31.5% in 2025, which, although still high for international standards, was 180 points lower than it was two years prior. Critics, however, have said that the way the INDEC has been measuring inflation during Milei’s presidency delivers a faulty index as it is based on a basket of goods and services originally drafted in 2004.  The new index, set to debut on Tuesday, 10, is calculated using a 2017-2018 basket. The major difference is that the current method will assign more weight to the cost ofservices and transportation. The Center of Argentine Political Economy (CEPA) estimated that, if this methodology would have been used over the past two years, inflation would have increased by an extra 11% overall since December 2023. Llaneza said that Lavagna’s resignation has affected INDEC staff as the news comes at a moment in which the agency will be “at the center of public opinion.”  “Alarmed” is how he described the workers’ state of mind.  “We have historically demanded an INDEC that is independent of political power,” he went on to say, adding that he hoped that the price index would be released on February 10 with the new contributing factors accounted for. Lavagna’s replacement had not been officially announced at the time of writing. Local media, however, has reported that Pedro Lines, who has served in the INDEC since 2016 and has been its technical director since 2018, is set to take on the role.