Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Dodgy statistics

You can always count on the Economist to sum up an article in its title. Which is why I found the piece on the Argentinian economy the other week - "still lying after all these years" - so interesting.

The problem, as those of you who've come with us on missions to Argentina in recent years have seen, is that official statistics say one thing, and the facts on the ground say another. "The Health Ministry reduced the murder count by 2/3 by "subtracting 'deaths from outside aggression, of unknown intent,' of which there were 3,124 in 2011," says the magazine. Moreover, according to government statistics only 4.7% of the population is poor ... but a more accurate figure is 27% (!)

I've written about the economic challenges in Argentina before. And I keep reminding myself of the good news: even if there is another recession in the coming year, it probably won't be a repeat of what we - and the Jewish community - saw ten years ago.


If you want to receive this blog on a regular basis by email (about twice a week, depending on what else I'm up to), sign up in the top-right box where it says "follow" ...

No comments:

Post a Comment