Argentina Appoints Barrios To Head INDEC

Argentina has appointed Alejandro Barrios to run country’s national statistics bureau INDEC. He replaces Mario Krieger who has been the interim head since mid-March when Lélio Mármora resigned for health reasons. Barrios had been director of coordination and statistical planning at the Bureau. Ana María Edwind, currently head of human resources at the agency, was named deputy director and will be responsible for statistics, replacing Clyde Trabuchi who resigned. Commenting on the appointments, Goldman Sachs said it regarded the move to restore INDEC’s eroded credibility as a positive one. However, it said it was still too early to judge whether the issue of alleged interference of the ministry of economy in calculating inflation had been addressed. Workers at INDEC have been protesting since January after the replacement of Graciela Bevacqua, the head of the consumer price index team, who was substituted by government-appointed Beatriz Paglieri. They claim the government has intervened to amend calculation methodology and replaced those opposed to the move.