RE: Argentina

["Leticia Arroyo Abad" <asecon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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Doug Henwood wrote:
> Since we have a few Argentines on PKT, and some non-Argentine students of
> the country, maybe someone knows the story behind the World Bank's
> mysterious upgrading of Argentina's per capita GDP figures. In the 1987
> World Development Report, Argentina's per capita GDP was given as $2,130,
> just behind South Korea and just above Mexico. In 1992, Argentina's
income
> was $2,370, way behind Korea's $5,400 and about $100 below Mexico. In the
> 1997 WDR, Argentina clocks in at $8,030, more than twice Mexico's $3,320,
> and not that far behind Korea's $9,700. Does this make any sense to
anyone?

This is one of the mysteries of our country!! One is wondering how this can
happen. There was a recent study about this, and due to the overvaluation
of the peso, they tried to estimate the GDP per capita, and to our surprise
it was lower than the official statististics, the GDP was adjusted by PPP.
For example the 1997 GDP estimation is 315,327 millions of pesos and
adjusted by PPP it's 200,796.9 millions of dollars!! (quite a difference,
don't you think). In terms of GDP per capita: 9264 pesos versus 5900!!
Besides in 1980 there were National Accounts revisions "sponsored" by the
World Bank, which led to higher GDP estimates. Although it is true that
Argentina has experienced since 1991 a huge growth (the 80's are known as
the lost decade), the GDP per cápita is not an accurate measure for the
people welfare (the income inequality is deeper and it doesn't seem that we
are having a turning point right now).