Minister Silvina Batakis at the meeting he held with members of the United States Chamber of Commerce
Silvina Batakis is no longer Minister of Economy. He has been for 24 days.
Take stock of its management based on what happened with the economic and financial variables, it is as unfair as it is capricious.
Perhaps for some conversation of those results and to put “evidence” on the table, it would be useful to see what happened to the exchange rate and country risk. We see:
– The minister took over with the blue dollar at $ 239 and left it at $ 314. It reached $ 350 a week ago.
– Country risk increased by 164 basis points. It also hit 3,000 points a week ago.
From this point of view it is clear that Batakis has never finished gaining a foothold. It has never aroused trust either “inside” or “outside”.
Another question is whether it is reasonable to expect a person to generate certainty while the government squanders it on a daily basis.
“If politics is not ordered to this crisis, neither Batakis nor Mandrake will solve it,” economist Marina Dal Poggetto told Clarín a couple of weeks ago. Something similar was pointed out when Martín Guzmán slammed the door. Perhaps it is a reading that exempts ministers from guilt, in excess.
In economics, there is something you can do from the first day you hold the office of minister. And it’s counting what the Floor What have you got, the program.
Batakis held a press conference on Monday 11 July. It seems an eternity has already passed and in the previous one, that morning, there was a long wait for a program or even substantial measures to arrive. But none of this has happened, except for some definitions in the correct sense, as most economists repeat today, of moving towards fiscal equilibrium and raising interest rates as they did yesterday, bringing them to almost 90%.
The minister, however, never explained how she would eliminate the deficit and sustain it over time. What reforms would you apply?
This week he went to the United States and spoke with the Treasury, the IMF and the funds that have Argentine debt in their portfolios. He said he had the support of Cristina Kirchner to make the adjustment. They didn’t even believe him.
Guzmán is another case of a minister who from the first day of his administration had no plan to lower inflation. A program that explained how he would solve the imbalances and pay off the debt. He favored the renegotiation with creditors and the presentation of the financial statements.
To stabilize its variables, the Argentine economy does not need to lower the fiscal deficit. It should immediately move towards equilibrium. Because there is no time. In 1989, inflation went from 9% per month to nearly 150% per month in six months. Close to Rodríguez Larreta there is talk of lowering the deficit in months, for example.
Batakis was 24 days old and did not say his plan. I didn’t have it. And this is a much better rod to evaluate his pace. Now, what is the mass plan?
Ezechiele Burgo
Source: Clarin
