Knocking on “Hell´s door.” 2023: The Year Argentina Lives Again (in danger of) Hyperinflation

Abstract

This paper examines the hypothesis that Argentina was on the verge of hyperinflation in 2023. If inflation were to escalate to hyperinflation, society's urgent demands: Stabilize and Else! Moreover, a credible stabilization plan could yield rapid results after hyperinflation compared to a chronic highinflation regime. Furthermore, if Argentina faces the risk of hyperinflation in 2023, like the 1989- 1990 crisis, it would be a rare event in world history. This would be only the second case in world history, after Russia, in which a country has experienced repeated hyperinflations, highlighting Argentina's lack of institutional and generational memory of past crises. The paper reviews economic definitions of quantitative thresholds and mainly examines qualitative responses to hyperinflation versus those in a chronic high-inflation regime. The paper shows that Argentine society displayed several adaptive behaviors in 2023 as it did during earlier hyperinflations, and as the Germans did during their hyperinflation in 1923. Likewise, Argentina surpassed several quantitative thresholds for hyperinflation. At least during 2023, even amid financial repression, Argentina was knocking again on the hell's door of hyperinflation.