HILARY JOFFE: Shooting the messenger while talking Turkey and gin
Publishing a country’s inflation figures can be a bucking horse to ride
31 January 2022 - 19:33
The other day Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan fired the head of the official statistics agency because the president didn’t like the inflation figures. Turkey’s annual inflation rate is 36% and rising, its currency has crashed and the chief statistician couldn’t win. While Erdogan accused him of inflating the rate, the opposition accused him of massaging it downwards.
Nor is Erdogan unique. Argentina’s president fired the entire consumer price index division at the national statistics agency in 2007; their successors had criminal charges brought against them for publishing dodgy inflation numbers...
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