After the "black week", the Government believes that the worst of the economic crisis is over

Guido Carelli Lynch

09/25/2020 - 11:01

• Clarín.com

• Politics

The focus of the virtual meeting that this Tuesday brought together all

ministers

was actually climate change.

Several of those present, however, took note of the harangue by Chief of Staff Santiago Cafiero, who anticipated what was to come:

the Government since his inauguration.

"You have to go out and put your face up and defend the management of our government every day," demanded the President's alter ego.

Cafiero anticipated the numbers that would be known in the following hours: the

in the second quarter of 19.1% in the year-on-year comparison and the

that has already registered its worst mark since 2005. To those cold numbers, it is necessary to add the Poverty indicators that will be known next Wednesday.

The Chief of Cabinet asked the ministers to close ranks and military the government's actions more than ever.

In the Casa Rosada there was disagreement with several front-line officials who do not raise the profile and do not communicate with enough emphasis the Executive's containment measures.

The

in the communication of the tightening of the

between the Economy and the Central Bank

are still fresh

.

Last week a joint communication from Minister Martín Guzmán and the head of the monetary body

was scheduled

, which was finally discarded.

Guzmán's clarifications - first

 and then public - came late.

Cafiero's request to the ministers coincides with the vision in the heart of the Government about the media that the President made explicit with criticism.

According to the official view, the newspapers and news channels do not record the

or its successes.

They argue that the most paradigmatic case of this myopia was the coverage

. 

The Chief of Cabinet, Santiago Cafiero applauds the Minister of Economy, Martín Guzmán after the debt restructuring.

Productive Development Minister Matías Kulfas, on the right.

To start this turn of the page, the Government is betting on fixing the

that was reinstated in the last 10 days.

It consists of the return of the head of state to his office in the Casa Rosada two or three times a week;

a “citizen” ad in a Buenos Aires town (the Peronist stronghold par excellence) and a trip to a province to show management, with emphasis on management ads and those linked to production.

Several ministers took note of Cafiero's request.

The head of the Productive Development Portfolio

exponentially raised his profile this week with interventions in the media.

The minister is encouraged to say in public now that the

“We see that the worst of the economic crisis has passed.

We had a very complicated second quarter, especially in April (...) We see a sustained and heterogeneous recovery after a brutal fall, "said the minister on Wednesday during his participation in a seminar at the Austral University. 

Although they do not call them "

", the government welcomes some economic indicators.

They affirm that the industry is already at the same level of production as before the pandemic and they emphasize that 70 percent of the productive sector no longer requested the assistance of the ATP en masse, although with textiles the proportion is reversed. 

In the Executive they underline the

and the

that the President launched in the last month: the National Plan for Regional Infrastructure;

the National Works Plan "Argentina Hace", the Infrastructure for Care Program;

the Hidrovía Paraná - Paraguay plan, the Renovate Plan for consumption, the Rodar Plan, financing for SMEs;

the financing of structural change to re-boost exports, the National Program for the Development of Industrial Parks;

the implementation of a development bank;

the promotion of a development bank and the Family Agriculture Plan.

In La Rosada they highlight that the forecast of the

of 5.5 points of GDP that the

projects

for next year is

.

The Deputy Chief of Staff

is one of the officials who transmits the most optimism in this regard.

Several officials wonder what would happen, moreover, if the expectations of some of the private laboratories working on a vaccine against the coronavirus came true and the first quarter of 2021 was not as bad as the official diagnoses predict.

Kulfas is enthusiastic about the possibility of Argentina positioning itself in the market for the

;

with

and maintains the confidence of industries that, in the midst of the pandemic, were able to reconvert and scale their production, such as

as respirators with which they can be supplied to other countries.

He also considers that teleworking could favor the export of services and the generation of foreign exchange.

The Chief of Staff agrees with the government team's speed of reaction, although they emphasize that the pandemic and its unpredictable development can destroy any prognosis.

In the Cafiero environment, they also point out that there are no significant inmates in the Cabinet.

Very few participate in decision-making.

At Tuesday's meeting, the coordinating minister informed the entire Cabinet that the budget for the remainder of the year will not change, although they are still evaluating how to close the accounts.

With the

underway, in the Economic Cabinet, which Cafiero also heads, they are debating

which is received by 9 million Argentines.

Several ministers are analyzing replacing the $ 10,000 aid with incentives for the first job and more credits for that sector.

"The idea is to redirect these aid, not to eliminate spending," they explain.

The IFE also serves to contain governors who demand more funds.

Some provincial leaders demand the restitution of the Soy Fund that Mauricio Macri eliminated, an idea that still does not have enough followers in Balcarce 50.

On Thursday afternoon, Kulfas and Guzmán stopped by La Rosada to meet with the President, Cafiero and Gustavo Beliz and advance with the cold numbers.

The first two did not cross, but while the Minister of Economy still remained, the head of the Central arrived, increasingly questioned by Christianity, and at the center of the storm due to the rise in the dollar that sows

.