The director of Argentina's statistics agency has resigned following accusations of government interference with inflation data, a leading newspaper reported on Saturday.
Earlier this year, the center-left government replaced the head of the statistics agency department that measures consumer prices with someone reportedly close to Economy Minister Felisa Miceli. Workers at the National Statistics Institute, known as the INDEC, have said the government aimed to fudge the sensitive figures.
Government officials have defended the accuracy of the February consumer price data. The report in Clarin said agency director Lelio Marmora sent a letter of resignation to Miceli on Friday. An Economy Ministry official said he could not confirm the report.
A lower-than-expected inflation figure of 0.3 percent for February aroused suspicions among some financial analysts that the government had tinkered with the inflation data. Argentina, Latin America's No 3 economy, registered inflation of 9.8 percent in 2006 and 12.3 percent in 2005.