Argentine inflation accelerates to 4.7pc in March

BUENOS AIRES: Argentina consumer prices rose 4.7% in March, the country's statistics agency said on Tuesday, accelerating from the previous month as stubborn inflation pinches spending power and hurts President Mauricio Macri ahead of elections this year.

The rise marked the third consecutive month in which inflation has sped up and taken the year-to-date rise to 11.8%. Rolling 12-month inflation is running at 54.7%, the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) said.

Argentina's consumer prices rose 47.6% in 2018, part of the broader financial turmoil that has left a third of Latin America's No. 3 economy in poverty, pushed interest rates skyward and sent the peso tumbling against the dollar.

Economists polled by Argentina's central bank earlier this month sharply raised their forecast for 2019 inflation to 36% from a previous estimate of 31.9%.