The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Fernández, after a new inflation record in Argentina: "We have to set some objective"

2023-05-12T19:56:16.048Z

Highlights: CPI in April rose by 8.4% and the year-on-year reaches 108.8%, once again the highest percentage since the corralito crisis in 2001. The Peronist government has no compass, in the midst of a harsh electoral campaign, without clear candidates to renew its mandate in October. The most optimistic forecasts call for 120% inflation by December, while Massa embraces the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a remedy against a devaluation. The crisis, meanwhile, raises the specters of extreme measures and gives wings to the extreme right.


The CPI in April rose by 8.4% and the year-on-year reaches 108.8%, once again the highest percentage since the corralito crisis in 2001


Argentina's President Alberto Fernandez this week during an appearance. ESTEBAN COLLAZO (AFP)

Argentina's inflation is soaring. It reached 8.4% in April and 108.8% year-on-year, the highest since the corralito crisis in 2001. It had already broken its own record in March, with 104.3% and will surely do so during May, when the impact of the run against the peso that at the end of April triggered the dollar quotes in the financial markets is measured. The Peronist government has no compass, in the midst of a harsh electoral campaign, without clear candidates to renew its mandate in October and fractured in internecine fights. The president, Alberto Fernández, anticipated the data given by INDEC this Friday with a long interview with a related journalist. "Last night [Thursday] I was talking about the issue with [Economy Minister] Sergio (Massa). We have to set some definitive goal to stop this, there are many causes that are generating this," he said. It may already be too late to set a goal. The most optimistic forecasts call for 120% inflation by December, while Massa embraces the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a remedy against a devaluation.

April inflation was especially high in food, at 10.1%, almost two points above the monthly average. The phenomenon has been repeated since the beginning of the year. A World Bank study released Thursday placed Argentina second on the list of countries where food prices have risen the most in the world, only surpassed by Lebanon and ahead of Zimbabwe and Iran.

The data is of particular concern to the government, because it hits the spinal cord of its electorate, the poorest, the one that is concentrated mainly in the industrial outskirts of Buenos Aires. Fernández has left the administration of the economic crisis in the hands of Massa, while he dedicates himself to campaigning for the Peronist candidate in October to leave the primary elections scheduled for August. His decision, after renouncing the possibility of re-election, exasperates Massa, who intends to be anointed by finger as the representative of the ruling party on the ballot, and Kirchnerism, which wants the minister to be. The political noise is such that Massa himself warned on Thursday that the "quilombo" does not help him stabilize economic indicators. "We don't get one more quilombo. Politics sometimes gives a sad spectacleshowing on the radio or television its miseries and its fights, when in reality we have to face the worst debt in history, a pandemic that changed human behavior, forced us to change the health system, a war that others gave but that changed our prices. Massa said. The message is that he doesn't want to have to discuss his candidacy with other Peronist rivals.

Fernandez, meanwhile, is trying to lower tensions. That is why he said he speaks "with Sergio" about the problem of inflation, the main problem of his administration. "There are many causes that are driving this," he said. "One is the speculation that there may be a devaluation, that the [unofficial] blue dollar rises, the 'just in case we increase'. It's what I called self-constructed inflation, psychological inflation." It is not the first time that the Argentine president considers that inflation is a psychological phenomenon, to the exasperation of government economists and the opposition, who have not found the origin of such a trauma for years.

The crisis, meanwhile, raises the specters of extreme measures and gives wings to the extreme right. Presidential candidate Javier Milei is a good example of this. While he harangues his people to end "the political caste", he grows in the polls with the promise of a dollarization of the economy that will magically end inflation. Milei is economics and defends his proposal to the shouts in the television studios. His detractors remind him that with the Central Bank's reserves close to zero, a similar measure should be made at a parity of the peso with the dollar close to 7000,14 pesos, <> times higher than the current one.

Subscribe here to the newsletter of EL PAÍS América and receive all the informative keys of the current situation of the region.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2023-05-12

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.