03/27/2021 5:34 PM
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 03/27/2021 5:40 PM
The Minister of Economy, Martín Guzmán, went out to cross the former president Mauricio Macri and warned him that one of his priorities is to "
clean up the hangover of financial speculation left by the government
" of Cambiemos.
Back in Argentina after the efforts he made in the United States to try to refinance the debt with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Guzmán decided to make a public statement to deny the former president.
Without mentioning it, the Minister of Economy rejected some of the proposals that Macri made in the different interviews he granted in recent days, on the occasion of the presentation of his book "Primer Tiempo", in which he ratified his harsh criticism against the government of Alberto Fernández and rejected the accusations of Cristina Kirchner for the debt crisis that Argentina is going through.
"A former president declared that the Government is taking on debt at rates of 18% in dollars. I find it appropriate to clarify that
such an assertion is false
to avoid confusion and provide clarity on how we are solving one of the great problems that his administration created," Guzmán wrote at the beginning of an extensive Twitter thread.
Addressing Macri, Guzmán declared that "his government favored the unregulated inflow of capital whose business is to speculate on opportunities for short-term financial returns instead of investing in the real economy."
"Let it be clear: it was a scheme that
encouraged speculation
and punished production," he remarked.
A former president declared that the government is taking on debt at rates of 18% in dollars.
I find it appropriate to clarify that such a statement is false to avoid confusion and provide clarity on how we are solving one of the great problems that your administration created.
- Martín Guzmán (@Martin_M_Guzman) March 27, 2021
The official spoke of the crisis that stood out in 2018, for which Macri turned to the IMF.
"When in 2018 the world stopped believing in Argentina that Together for Change proposed, that phenomenon turned into a very serious problem. Just as they had entered, without any regulation those capitals began to leave suddenly, giving rise to an exchange crisis and economic, "he said.
"
One of the multiple challenges for our administration was to clean up the hangover of financial speculation left by the previous government
and thus strengthen the economy," said the official.
Followed, Guzmán focused on denying the former president.
First, he said that in "none of the operations" undertaken by the national government was debt issued in dollars.
"If we had issued bonds in exchange for receiving 38 cents of USD in cash for every dollar of nominal value, there the public sector would have borrowed at 18%. But that never happened," he differentiated.
He added that "on the other hand, the exchange management of the Central Bank did not result in any net indebtedness of the public sector."
"The former president may be suggesting that the public sector made a net sale of bonds in USD at prices of 38 cents on the dollar. It is also false," he remarked.
"On the contrary, after the
successful restructuring
of the external public debt, the consolidated public sector made net purchases (that is well understood: purchases, not sales) of securities in USD for a nominal total of USD 459 million at prices of between 33 and 40 cents on the dollar, "said Guzmán.
Finally, he warned that
"unlike what the former president indicated, the State not only did NOT get 18% in debt in USD, but it got out of debt in a net way
."
He also took the opportunity to point out to the former president that "Argentina needs respectful dialogue with truthful information" and that "acting responsibly helps us forge a more constructive society."
Macri: "Guzmán is getting 18% in debt"
In an interview with radio Miter, Macri said that he does not regret having gone to the International Monetary Fund in 2018 and pointed to the famous "inheritance" of Kirchnerism.
"She received a country with a 4% surplus and returned it with a 5% deficit. We could not face all the debts and the enormous support from the world allowed us to make a loan to pay the debts.
Today Guzmán is getting into debt at 18 %
. The wrong thing I did was explain it in a minute, "he acknowledged, remembering the recorded message he issued to announce that he was going to request aid from the IMF.
In addition, he said that David Lipton, then acting managing director of the agency, would not let them intervene on the dollar issue.
"That was unlucky, because Lipton decided that we could not participate in the currency market. We told them that if we did not control the dollar it would not go down (inflation) and they said yes."
LM
