The announcement by Minister of Economy Sergio Massa that he will repurchase debt securities in dollars for up to US$ 1,000 million caused a great stir.
For the economist Hernán Lacunza, the proposal
"generates a couple of certainties and a few doubts"
.
And in this sense he assured
"magic does not exist, there will be no fundamental change. It is an elongation operation to save time"
.
For the former Minister of Economy of the Province of Buenos Aires and former Minister of National Finance and current economist of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, the main objective of this measure
"is to be able to intervene in the exchange market
, buy bonds with dollars and then sell them in pesos.
It's something that was already being done on the shoulder".
In dialogue with Marcelo Longobardi, on CNN radio, he explained that although offering dollars to lower the exchange rate gap is something that was already being done, "before they did it on the shoulder, with the ANSeS, and
now they said let's go for the asphalt".
"Asphalt is always better
," he continued.
But for the former Macrista official, the mechanism they use for asphalt goes against the organic charter of the bank.
"Going on the asphalt means that I am going to give an instruction to the Central Bank," he said.
And he added: "However,
the law says that the Treasury cannot give any order to the BCRA."
For the economist, it is like deciding to straighten the road but "change all the signs."
Lacunza was critical of the timing and the decisions, but he dodged the controversy over the movements prior to the announcement that occurred in the bond market.
He put his eye on four basic points: the drought, the possible future devaluation, more inflation, and a lot of spending on reserves to buy little debt.
And then he recommended to the Government that they clear up the suspicions.
"With the soybean dollar, the reserves rose
," he explained.
And he continued:
"You bought reserves with pesos and Leliq at $230 per dollar.
This is a questionable operation
because you paid dearly for them and then you sold dollars at $170 to importers
. So, you lost $60 for every dollar you bought. And that was We lose all the Argentines who have pesos".
For the economist, this operation in the midst of a shortage of reserves "is inflation and future devaluation," he said.
And he clarified, "it is inflation and future devaluation because you issued pesos without backing. You used that backing for something else, and now with less backing you have a future devaluation. And loose pesos are higher inflation."
In addition, he questioned: "You are not lowering the debt, you are not repurchasing the debt,
you are changing creditors. And the creditors are the Argentines."
"
He spent 16% of the reserves to buy 1% of the debt
," said Lacunza, and explained: "You are using very scarce resources for an operation that was not essential at this time."
The former official of María Eugenia Vidal in the province pointed out that US$ 1,000 million, which is 16% of net reserves, is used to buy 1% of the debt.
"You are being very bold, it is one thing to be brave and another to be reckless,"
she assured.
When asked if there were suspicions about
who bought before the news
was released , that is, they bought with the information perhaps, Lacunza said: "this is very delicate."
"One can question and give an opinion on expertise or lack of expertise, but ethical issues are much more delicate," he stressed in this regard and called on the government to clarify this issue well.
In this sense, he explained that "there was a bond rally, not only in the last few days but in the last two or three months, which was accompanied by what happened in the world for various reasons unrelated to what happened in Argentina." .
In this regard, he acknowledged that "in the last 15 days there has been an intensification of that rally but one cannot affirm such a thing."
And he stressed, "the best thing that can happen is that the government can explain it and eliminate all kinds of suspicion."
What did Lacunza say as soon as the news broke
NS
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