It is pathetic that you have to rave about finding a $3 dollar coffee as an accomplish in BA. That is expensive!!
Argentina does seem like it is in its own category. It would be stressful if I relocated there. The difficult thing is not knowing how things will be. I am impressed people like you Dave and @FuturoBA are relocating there. Do you guys worry about future cost of living? Or do you assume that it is at peak and will go down? Can it keep going up higher?
I don't know how much things will change or what will happen, but I've budgeted in some buffer for if things continue to rise and plan A, B, C etc for what I can do.
Thank you. That is exactly what I was thinking. Things can't keep going up. The price increases seem unsustainable to me. My friends there all complain it go up each month. They have their savings in dollars so it very hard for them. Sell their savings to pay bills. Thanks for answering. I would love to move there. I love it. I traveled to some countries in South America but no place has feel like BA.
Do you know when they will end the controls for currency? All the locals tell me the peso is too strong but when will it correct? I thought steak would be very cheap here. I always hear about Argentine beef so I thought it would be cheap but it is actually not as cheap as I thought it would be.
The CEPO (currency controls) won't end until at least after the elections. There are mid-term elections in October and the government will be too scared to lift currency controls before then. The IMF is expected to do a new loan deal in the next few months which Argentina desperately needs before they would lift currency controls.
I agree about the increases in beef prices. Just obscene. Beef prices jumped up anywhere from 7% to 15% last month which is insane.
It is funny when you find coffee for $3 bucks and consider it a win. I went to a lot of cafes in Palermo. I didn't shop around and just went where it was convenient and a bunch of coffee the same price as I would find in the U.S.
Wow these are great prices. I haven't been to Paris in a few years. I thought it would be worse. Those prices are great! I didn't think food was cheap in BA and some places like Sushi were outrageous.
I have been posting for over a year how food is cheaper all over Europe vs. Buenos Aires. Even in expensive cities like Paris. Go all over Europe to Spain, Italy, France and many other places and it is more affordable than BA. I got a pizza the other day and it was 30,000 pesos! Look in Paris and you are paying almost half that.
It is very stressful for us. Every time we think costs will not go up more it does. Look at beef. How can they keep raising the cost for us? It was already at unaffordable prices and now they go ever higher. Things will go like this and then crash. It happen several times before. No one can try to argue that beef should be more expensive here than abroad. My friend came from Orlando to BA last week and tell me how even in her town good steak is less than some restaurants in BA.
I can't imagine what it is like to make a peso income and go through these increases in both pesos and in USD prices.
Like anywhere in any city there are going to be affordable places and expensive places. BA is no different. Agree steak has gone up and is still going up. Frustrating seeing that when inflation is going down. Lots of locals have cut back on beef.
From a tourist's perspective BA is still quite cheap. Flights and accommodations are your biggest expense for families and those are far cheaper for BA than anywhere in Europe. Flights to Europe are about 50% more than BA and accommodations in Italy are probably 4x. I've heard Spain and Portugal are much cheaper for accommodations but that'll have to be next year. In BA we could stay at one of the best available 3br AirBnBs and eat at Don Julio every night, and it would still cost far less than Italy.
Interesting to hear about flight prices. What airports are you flying out of Craig? My sister in LA told me that flights were expensive last month. She was going to visit me but said it was expensive. Maybe it depends what airport you are flying out of. She said she could go to Europe for less even from the West Coast. The thing BA is very affordable is on apartment rentals. Hotels not so much but Airbnbs are still cheap here.
I agree accommodations are less here but I would argue that Don Julio is going to be more than most places in Europe. Food is not expensive in Europe. The typical meal for even 2 people at Don Julio's today is more than $150 dollars. I don't know how many people are in your family. Are you saying that Don Julio is cheaper than European restaurants? I would disagree with you on that. Italy has affordable restaurants everywhere.
What we are supposed to just keep our mouths shut and not talk about what is happening? I love Argentina more than anyone but this is just right.
I think it is fair to complain about the prices now. I don't think places charging as much as $6 to $7 for a coffee is right. And even $3 coffee is expensive and that is searching around. I do not think coffee should be a luxury to locals. Even the things like medialunas which I love are going up. Eating beef once in a while shouldn't be a luxury in Argentina. It makes me angry that I can't afford these things when I want.
