Carlos Melconian described as insufficient the measures that the Government would apply to try to curb inflation and questioned that Minister Sergio Massa is thinking about a candidacy in the face of economic indicators that are the worst since 2015.
"These ads complicate. What worries me most of all is the rise in the interest rate, because to contain the rate that has pesos is nothing. And in terms of the liabilities of the Central Bank, it continues to throw kerosene on the fire," the economist said during an interview on Radio Rivadavia.
Melconian said that "the drought was a knockout blow" to the economic situation that the government had been managing and complicated "the 'Arrive' plan, which was first until December and now is until August."
"The drought has been a phenomenal blow and I do not see that there are short-term decisions to direct the situation, to give genuine air to the plan to arrive and for the construction of a future bridge for the transition," he said.
The economist stressed that initially the plan implemented by Sergio Massa when he arrived at the Ministry of Economy last year managed to "stabilize instability between August and December," but stressed that "the drought made what has been implemented so far fail decisively. And even the complicity of 'I look the other way' of the Monetary Fund fails."
And regarding what transpired over the weekend about what would be the tools with which it would seek to curb inflation, he was blunt: "These measures today is stretching gum that is already hard. There's no more gum here."
Melconian was surprised by the possibility that Minister Massa will end up being the candidate for president of the Frente de Todos this year. "The minister, if he showed anything, it was his street, his pragmatism. Obviously, either he is lacking reflexes, or he is not evaluating well the issue of his candidacy, the drought issue," he said.
"There is a dissociation between the variables that society looks at and defines, and the appetite for candidacy. If I look at the indicators of GDP, inflation, real wages, the poverty rate, in all cases and by far they are worse than in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021. There is an absolute dissociation in terms of wanting to be a candidate and the results," said the former president of Banco Nación.
"Let's stop fucking with the 'operative clamor.' Whose cry? No one here has a clamor for anyone. The only operative clamor in Argentina is to stop fucking around and take care of this. Build the bridge of the patriotic transition for what comes from now on," he said regarding the candidacies in the ruling party for this year's elections.
"Is there really someone from the ruling party thinking that he goes out on the field with these indicators and wins?" he concluded.
.DB
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