The Government of Javier Milei is considering incorporating an institutional shield for the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC), with the aim of preventing future administrations from manipulating official indices again, as happened during Kirchnerism.
The proposal was presented by the national deputy of La Libertad Avanza Santiago Santurio during a meeting that the President held with government legislators at the Casa Rosada. The meeting focused on the future reform of the Central Bank's Organic Charter, whose text is still under preparation.
Adrián Ravier presented the reform of the Central Bank to end the issuance to the Treasury
The presidential spokesman, Adrián Ravier, confirmed that the initiative was favorably received by Milei. “The President celebrated it,” he said during his press conference, although he clarified that it is still an idea that must be evaluated before being formally incorporated into
the project.
After learning about the proposal, Santurio publicly thanked the president for listening to the proposal and considering its inclusion in the monetary reform.
“I want to thank President Javier Milei for listening to this proposal and considering incorporating it into the reform of the Central Bank's Organic Charter. The Argentina we are building needs strong institutions and clear rules,” said the legislator
.
Santurio argued that shielding the body would ensure that “official statistics can never again be manipulated by a government in office”. In addition, he stressed that without reliable information, serious public policies cannot be designed
. Santiago Santurio's post on X
“Without reliable data there is no truth, and without truth there is no freedom or serious public policies,” he said. Finally, he linked the initiative to the institutional reform promoted by Milei and assured that the objective is to leave behind “the practices that did so much harm to our
country.”
The warning came after the President explained that the reform of the Central Bank would contemplate different mechanisms for inflation and deflation contexts. Santurio noted that a future understatement of the Consumer Price Index could alter those mechanisms and allow an administration to evade restrictions established by law
. During the Kirchner era, INDEC statistics were manipulated to deny poverty and inflation
The most serious precedent occurred during the Kirchner governments, when the political intervention of INDEC raised strong questions about the reliability of the figures for inflation, poverty and economic activity. Statistical manipulation ended up becoming one of the symbols of the institutional deterioration of the K era
.
The possible INDEC shield does not yet have a definitive wording. However, Milei's initial support shows that the Government intends to complement the ban on financing the deficit with emissions with guarantees that prevent altering official statistics to hide the consequences of economic disorder
