Carlos Melconian warns that “with inflation of these amounts, wages will not win”

“If we continue with those swerves we are not going to single digit inflation”, condemned economist Carlos Melconian when analyzing the economic and political situation affecting Argentina after the Indec this week reported a 6% increase in the consumer price index for the month of April.

speaking on the show The bagel, led by Eduardo van der Kooy and Daniel Fernández Canedo, of TN, the former president of Banco Nación pointed out that the problem of inflation in the country did not start with the Cambiemos government, nor with Mauricio Macri, or the current administration. . “If you exclude ’89 and ’90 in 80 years of history the average gives 67% per year“, the analyst pointed out to add that if one is looking for a truly inherited single-digit inflation, it was in the 1990s.

Melconian indicated that Argentina “has the potential to have the conditions” to overcome inflationary escalation, but considered that “it is clear that this is a leadership issue.”

“Inflation can come down if there is a program,” the economist reiterated, but insisted that “in this political context” “there will be no program to fight” the price increase.

For the economist, “if inflation returns to 3.5 or 4% per month there will be a sense of relief” to the Government, which in his opinion is an indicator that “berretalandia is valid, lasts and will come, the decline will not going down. “

In his analysis, he explained that the region had overcome the problem of inflation generated in the framework of the pandemic. “Let’s not fool ourselves that Russia and Ukraine triggered inflation. The triggered inflation is 8% per year. Hopefully the Russian or Ukrainian trigger is at 9%. Inflation has a solution if there is a program, “he insisted.

According to data released this week by Indec, the variation for April is 6% and so far this year it has accumulated an increase of 23.1%. In this way, the year-on-year increase in retail prices climbed to 58%, the highest number in the past 30 years.

“When inflation has these values, the salary will never beat it,” explains the analyst, adding that for this condition it is necessary to “achieve sustainability over time, compare a period and not leave. next month in a row The salary increase is approaching the quota and is said to be recovering. ” “No one else believes that whole verse,” said the economist, who said that “wages have once again been attributed to productivity in Argentina, with an impressive disruption in the supply of doing so beyond wages.”

The crisis and the situation of Guzmán

Carlos Melconian also referred to the situation of the Minister of the Economy, Martín Guzmán, who was questioned by Kirchnerism and led by President Alberto Fernández.

“The minister rang the bell in all the places where ten businessmen were going to utter a message unknown and the businessman himself, to cope with this time, I would not say that he hugged him, but this. Is better to be known bad than good to know, “said the former official.

When reviewing Guzmán’s administration, Melconian considered “there was a wrong economic analysis on the first day”, but according to his interpretation was “a political problem from before the first day” when Vice President Cristina Kirchner elected Alberto Fernández as president .

It was there that the former president of Banco Nación spoke again about the issue of inflationary and pointed out that there should be “a State policy” to deal with this problem. “But this is a government that has already started with a question mark on how that will work. It has not corrected the structure of the Ministry of Economy and the minister of industry, the president of the Central Bank, the secretary of Energy and the Secretary of Commerce. as if they were ministers, “he explained.

Melconian wondered, “What does it mean to protect Guzman?” And, immediately, he explained that keeping the Economy Minister in office “is a symbol of politics.” “If politics is corrected now, the economy is not corrected, and the economy cannot be corrected in the political context,” he explains.

“When the minister (Guzmán) made the loan agreement, I read articles that were considered presidential. They were the typical swerves of Argentina and now they want to bring him back to Columbia,” he commented.

Finally, Melconian warned: “If we continue with these swerves, we will not have single-digit inflation” and called for a “common cause” between the political leadership, justice, unionism and businessmen.

GRB