Javier Firpo
10/17/2020 6:01 AM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 10/17/2020 6:01 AM
Rossana Laurenti is Argentine but has lived in Rome for many years.
He can't wait to travel to the country to reunite with his family but also to take advantage of how cheap Argentina is for someone who, as in his case, has euros in his wallet.
His eyes pop out when he calculates that
for 15 euros he can invite his mother to dinner at a premium grill like La Cabrera
.
From his home in Rome, he has already been stepping on the online menu of the Palermo restaurant and made a reservation with the required menu: they will eat a grilled gizzard to start with, a butterfly chorizo steak to share, accompanied by two soft drinks and an ice cream tasting.
"
On Friday I saw that the euro blue closed at 189 pesos
($ 196 for sale)
, I couldn't resist,
" explains this graphic designer who lives in the Vatican neighborhood.
The woman who has lived in Europe for more than twenty years remarks that in Rome "
the same dinner does not go below 80 or 90 euros
, if I don't fall short," says Rossana, who makes the calculation in the blue market, where today They pay 174 pesos for each euro.
A bipolar and increasingly unequal country,
Argentina is a bargain for foreigners who have dollars or euros
, or for compatriots who have a mattress in those currencies.
Tourists who live in the country, Argentines who charge in dollars or savers who kept foreign currency, the great beneficiaries of a "gifted" Argentina.
"I have a retirement in dollars and the truth is that I have a huge advantage because I live in pesos, although what the country is experiencing hurts me,
the disproportion between the official exchange and the blue is immense
, our currency was thrown into lose, unfortunately, "says Juan Carlos Aguado, 77, who lived and worked for two decades in New York.
"The friends I have from there, from the borough of Queens, cannot believe the amounts that are being handled here for those who could come with dollars and sell them on the black market. They ask me if I'm doing the great glass ..." , shares Juan Carlos, who estimates that "
nowhere in the world could they eat or travel as happens in Argentina
, although for us, who live off the weight, it is very expensive."
Eating a salmon with garnish or a plate of pasta and a glass of wine in New York's Italian Quarter costs no less than $ 40.
A pair of jeans costs $ 60 and shore sneakers 80. "
Imagine if they come here with that silver, at the blue exchange they buy two or three units for the same values",
describes the retired VIP.
If we take the values of the informal market, where the dollar for sale climbs to 174 pesos per unit, we find a scenario of ridiculous prices.
Clarín
took a few examples from a bird's eye view: at the Carrefour supermarket, a good bottle of
an average Malbec costs only US $ 1.40 ($ 244)
.
Staying as a couple at the Sheraton Retiro costs US $ 48 per night ($ 8,476).
And a subway ride, just 10 cents ($ 19).
This chorizo steak with a garnish costs around $ 5 ($ 900) at a Palermo grill.
Prices that, according to Argentines living in Madrid, Barcelona, Milan, London and Berlin
, would be unthinkable are now a reality in the devalued Buenos Aires
, that if it had open borders it would soon be filled with foreigners doing tourism, going out to eat and, also, going shopping.
The other side?
Leaving the country, if possible,
became very expensive for the Argentine pocket because of the 65% surcharge
(the measure taken in September by the Central Bank).
In Rome an individual pizza costs 7 euros
, a pair of Nike shoes between 60 and 100 euros, a Levi's brand jean from 90, have a fruit smoothie with a toast 8 euros, cut your hair 15 (men) and 25 (women) and a night in a five-star hotel does not go below 300 euros.
In Madrid it is between 5 and 10 percent cheaper
: a combo at McDonalds costs 8 euros, a dinner for two in a downtown restaurant amounts to 40 euros, a cappuccino 2 euros, while a subway ticket costs 1.50 .
For the economist Gabriel Zelpo, this wide gap "basically comes from a government that has a large fiscal deficit and urgently needs financing. It
must be said that the quarantine was very expensive, more than expected
: many pesos were issued and too much was generated. deficit. And another no less problem is that the ordinary Argentine does not want the peso as a common currency and
does whatever it takes to get rid of it
beyond the efforts that the Government tries to avoid it. "
Zelpo emphasizes that "attempt" so that the Argentine does not get rid of the weight "which
causes our currency to lose an abysmal value compared to the dollar
, which is what is happening now, that we have a fully depreciated divide, that has an impact on the parallel dollar that climbs to a ridiculous figure. Why? Because of the amount of emission that occurred throughout the quarantine.
This gap sharpened strongly, very strongly in the pandemic
. "
Economic journalist Willy Kohan reported Thursday that the Central Bank is issuing 200 billion pesos per month, "which is equivalent to 100,000 pesos per second."
The Central Bank is issuing 200 billion pesos a month.
Photo: Marcelo Carroll
Laura Medina López is a journalist for a North American company and charges in dollars, which allows her to live comfortably in Buenos Aires and not suffer the constant devaluation of the peso and the skyrocketing of foreign currencies.
"I rent an apartment of 60 meters in Palermo that
in 2018 paid 700 dollars - which at that time was priced about 20 pesos - and today I am paying less than 200 for the same property
. The truth is that it is given away."
Laura's daughter goes to the French Lyceum, a monthly fee that currently stands at "around $ 200 when the historical value of that school was $ 500. That is,
in almost everything I pay much less, except for technology, than in general. It is imported,
"says the journalist who says she has"
a cave of trust that I always go to
and also, during the quarantine, I contacted a Facebook group that buys and sells and is highly recommended. "
Laura says that she just bought some Adidas shoes online "and compared to the same model but on the Adidas website in France - where she has a family, that's why she looked there -
here they cost 30 percent cheaper by making the blue dollar bill
, which is unusual because Argentina has always been inexplicably expensive in terms of clothing. "
If tourism normalizes, could Argentina become a shopping destination like Miami and Santiago were for the Argentine at some point?
"
I don't think they come to our country to shop
, because in shopping malls, with the import restriction that exists, foreigners are not going to find anything that dazzles them in terms of technology and telephony, and less clothing, which is still expensive and the quality dropped a lot ", analyzes Zelpo.
However, the economist is optimistic that "Argentina will become a place for specific things: come and eat a chorizo steak, have a good wine, spend a weekend in a ranch, or travel to places like the Iguazú Falls, Salta, Mendoza, Patagonia or CABA ... I think that
in this regard it will be a boom
and a bunch of Chileans and Brazilians will come, who will feel like millionaires here ".
Zelpo gets to the point: "except for Venezuela, Argentina has
the lowest minimum wage in the region, which is around 100 dollars, when in neighboring countries it does not
fall below
500 dollars
. Imagine what will happen when tourism becomes more flexible : They will come and do whatever they want. That is why I think it is very important that regional economies such as Bariloche, Mendoza, Iguazú or Salta take note of this so that they may re-emerge,
taking advantage of the targeted tourism that will come
. "
Is it circumstantial or is this situation here to stay?
"It is for a while, let's hope, I think it can be reversed, but I maintain that as a first measure
the emission tap has to be closed to reduce the fiscal deficit
. If it is not activated, there is no possible credibility," concludes Zelpo.
$
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