High inflation is rearing its ugly head in Argentina, a country once wracked with out-of-control consumer prices, the New York Times reports.

While hyperinflation from the late 20th century is unlikely to return, food prices are helped inflation rates rise by as high as 30 percent last year, independent economists say.

“It is clear that inflation weighs heaviest on Argentines on fixed incomes and especially those in the informal economy that don’t have a union to defend their interests,” says Sergio Berensztein, a political analyst with Poliarquía, a consulting firm in Buenos Aires.

The economy is growing in Argentina, rising by 9.5 percent in 2010, although 30 percent of the population lives in poverty.

Inflation, some say, will increase that percentage.

“The poverty level is higher now than the worst moments of the 1990s,” says Domingo Cavallo, a former economy minister.

“Without a doubt, inflation is increasing poverty.”

While the United States has said inflation is not a problem, European officials have said they’ll be on the look out for rising food prices.

Developing countries like Brazil and China are already battling rising consumer prices, although the issue is much more political in Argentina, where the government has long been under fire for watering down economic data.

A recent survey of purchasing managers indicates that rising prices is becoming an issue worldwide.

"The obvious culprits are food and energy prices," Mark Miller, global macroeconomist at Lloyds Banking Group, tells Reuters.

"The increases in commodity prices that we have seen very recently are likely to persist."