While Brazil's real has dropped a third this year, Argentina's peso has slipped only 8 per cent, yet at the cost of foreign reserves that dropped $US342 million in August to $US33.6 billion. The gap between the official rate, 9.3 pesos to the US dollar, versus 15.5 on the black market, has also widened.
"The average Argentine sees the value of the dollar as an estimate of how the economy is doing," said Matías Carugati, chief economist at Management Fit, a pollster.
Still, if the deteriorating economy has done little to dent Ms Fernández's popularity, neither has numerous corruption allegations swirling around her administration or recent charges of voter fraud at a gubernatorial election marred by violence and burnt ballots.
Argentina's "high level of ideological polarisation leads many to see any wrongdoing claims [by Ms Fernández] as a conspiracy", said Mr Levy Yeyati.
In the end, the president's relatively high ratings may be because many Argentines nostalgically recall how the past 13 years under Ms Fernández and Mr Kirchner were boom times, marked by improving social conditions, as they were across South America. Now they wish her a fond farewell.