Statistics: For Richer Or Poorer

Re-crunching the numbers—whatever they might be

DODGY statistics are something that has come to be associated with Argentina in recent years. Indeed this month the IMF gave the Argentine government a deadline of December 17th to come up with credible inflation numbers, or risk unspecified sanctions.

But across the Andes in Chile, an argument has raged for the past few weeks as to whether the centre-right government of Sebastián Piñera has fiddled the poverty numbers to flatter its economic record.