10/24/2020 2:55 PM
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 10/24/2020 3:00 PM
"No,"
Martín Guzmán replied on Friday when asked whether Argentina is heading for a devaluation.
"
Devaluing is not the solution
because it leads to more inflation and erodes purchasing power," said the minister.
Argentines learned the hard way that devaluation makes prices skyrocket and wages liquefy.
And they also learned the hard way that -although they are full of good intentions- the promises of the Economy Ministers or Presidents do not always coincide with their ability to comply with what was announced.
And it has been like this for the last 50 years.
"There will be no sharp devaluation"
The phrase is from
Celestino Rodrigo
, María Estela Martínez de Perón's Minister of Economy, in
1975
.
It was before on June 4 of that year the official ordered an adjustment that doubled prices and caused a crisis in the Government.
Rodrigo wanted to eliminate the distortion of relative prices with a strong devaluation of 160% for the commercial exchange and 100% for the financial exchange.
The inflation rate reached 777% per year and nominal prices rose 183% at the end of 1975. There was a shortage of a large quantity of food, fuel and other supplies for transportation.
"He who bets on the dollar, loses"
Former Minister of Economy Lorenzo Sigaut.
The
1981
phrase of
the Minister of Economy
Lorenzo Sigaut
- successor in office of José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz during the military dictatorship - has already remained in the popular imagination.
It was intended to discourage speculative maneuvers, but it remained a historical example of the unreliability of the words of officials.
A few days later, the dollar appreciated 30%.
"If the market wants dollars, we will hit it with the whip"
José Luis Machinea, former president of the Central Bank.
José Luis Machinea, president of the Central Bank during the presidency of Raúl Alfonsín, said it in
1989
.
A preview of the stocks?
It didn't work either and it ended in hyperinflation.
"Argentina will never abandon the Convertibility"
Domingo Cavallo with Adalberto Rodríguez Giavarini and Fernando de la Rúa at the Government House, in 2001.
Who other than
Domingo Cavallo
, the father of the creature, could have predicted the eternal 1 to 1.
In
2001
, with the country in a severe recession during the government of Fernando De la Rúa, he said that if the crisis worsened the country "would adopt the dollar or the euro as its official currency, instead of devaluing the peso and letting it float freely."
He told The Wall Street Journal because, he assured, Argentines "will never accept" that the peso floats freely because "they are used to a stable currency."
With all logic, he added that, if that happened "the peso would be repudiated as the southern one was at some point."
"The one who deposited dollars will receive dollars"
Eduardo Duhalde with his wife Hilda "Chiche" Duhalde, in 2002.
"He who deposited pesos will receive pesos. He who deposited dollars will receive dollars," said then-President
Eduardo Duhalde
, in
2002
.
Perhaps he meant those who deposited dollars will receive pesos at an exchange rate of $ 1.40, less than the $ 4 that it was at that time.
"Inflation affects only the upper class"
Amado Boudou with the then President Cristina Kirchner.
Clarín Archive.
Amado Boudou
, Cristina Kircher's Minister of Economy, assured in
2010
that inflation was not on the government's agenda.
And that the price increases were those stated by INDEC, intervened by the Government in 2006.
"We are not going to devalue the currency by 40%"
Guillermo Moreno, Axel Kicillof, Lorenzino, Mercedes Marcó del Pont and Ricardo Echegaray announcing the whitewash with smiles, in 2013
In
2013
, the then Minister of Economy of Cristina Kirchner, Axel Kicillof, assured that “the problems we are aiming at are well diagnosed.
We are not going to devalue the currency by 40%
as requested by the people of the PRO because it is bad for the country and good for the minorities that they may represent ”.
And he added that "in the last 50 years, there have been recurring devaluations and now we listen to those who did it who ask us to do it but we are
not going to do it
."
That was in August.
The devaluation came in January 2014, with a jump in the dollar from $ 6.52 to $ 7.14 and a devaluation of more than 30% during that year.
"It's okay, calm down"
Mauricio Macri and the brief message from the.
fifth of olive trees that shot the dollar.
August 14, 2018. Mauricio Macri tries to calm the spirits, after the US currency goes from 17 to 30. Meanwhile, from the Central Bank they raise the rate from 40% to 45%, auction US $ 500 million of the reserves and They seek to cancel the bulging stock of Lebac.
Less than 15 days later, the currency reaches $ 40 and the agreement with the IMF is announced.
NE
Look also
The illusory “1 to 1” paradise: when the peso was convertible
How did the Argentine obsession with the dollar begin?
