UPDATE 1-Argentine inflation eases but up 18.2 pct this year.
(Adds details on full-year inflation, background)
BUENOS AIRES, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Argentine inflation unexpectedly eased in August although it still clocked in at 18.2 percent since the begin of the year, one of the highest rates in the globe .
Consumer prices in Latin America's No. 3 economy rose 1.3 percent in August, down from a 1.4 percent gain in the earlier month, the Economy Ministry stated on Friday.
The average forecast in a Reuters poll of eight economists had been for them to hold steady.
Private consumption is seen dropping this year as inflation erodes purchasing power and a bleaker economic outlook in the wake of Argentina's default dampens consumer confidence.
More and more Argentines who have seen their salaries drop in real terms over the past handful years are struggling to eke out their wages until the end of the month.
Analysts anticipate the fall in consumer expenditure too as a decline in industrial output to deliver an economic contraction of among 2 and 3 percent this year.
A sharp currency devaluation in January fuelled inflation as Argentine businesses and merchants raised prices to adjust to the new exchange rate.
Private economists state Argentina's inflation rate may reach 40 percent in 2014, up from regarding 25 percent last year.
Argentina's government is widely suspected by economists of manipulating formal inflation figures since 2007 for political gain too as to decrease payments on the nation 's inflation-indexed debt.
The South American nation revamped its consumer price index this year in an attempt to win back the trust of investors after years of blatantly under-reporting inflation.
The government has implemented unconventional measures like supermarket price caps in an effort to control inflation.
But independent economists state the key problem is excessive deficit expenditure and they criticise the government's opening remarks of new subsidies since the default. (Reporting by Alejandro Lifschitz and Sarah Marsh; Editing by Diane Craft and Chizu Nomiyama)