Argentina inflation hits 143% as election runoff looms

The annual inflation rate in Argentina hit 143% according to the data released by the statistics agency on Monday in the run up to the presidential election.

The South American countryvotes in a presidential runoff on Sunday and the dire state of the economy could prove a factor dictating the outcome.

Argentina's year-on-year inflation hit 142.7% in October with a month-on-month rise of 8.3%, although these figures were down from peaks in August and September.

The latest inflation spike in the country, notoriously economically unstable in recent decades with three recent defaults to its name, has pushed two-fifth of its population into poverty and has been stirring up anger among voters.

"You can't just go to the mall and buy something you like as you did before. Today prices are unthinkable," Aylen Chiclana, a student in Buenos Aires told the Reuters news agency.

The prices have soared to the extent where a pair of new jeans is selling at a price that's roughly representative of Argentina's monthly minimum wage.

Anger over poor economy propels Javier Milei 

Pitted against each other in the race to become the president of Argentina are Economy Minister Sergio Massa and political outsider and the libertarian former economist Javier Milei.

While Massa has been at the helm while the country's economy dwindled and reached triple-digit inflation, he bagged most votes in last month's first-round of election.

Milei, the self-described "anarcho-capitalist" is hoping his promise to radically change the country's economy would benefit him in the presidential race.

Milei has pledged to "dynamite" the central bank and dollarize the economy, firing up voters frustrated over decades of poor living standards.

"We are going to dollarize. We are going to close the central bank. We are going to end the cancer of inflation," Milei said during the final debate.

Massa, meanwhile, argues that Milei's proposed economic policies are reckless and would only make matters worse for Argentina's poor. He even called for a psychiatric evalution of would-be presidents during the campaign. 

Even though Milei took a slight lead in polls, analysts say the race is too tight to predict ahead of Sunday's vote.

mfi/msh (AFP, Reuters)