Dujovne in Wonderland | He said that …

Inflation has accelerated again, consumption is plummeting, the process of job destruction is not halting and job insecurity is increasing, but Finance Minister Nicolás Dujovne, is convinced that purchasing power will improve in 2019. "wages will recover purchasing power, they will defeat inflation," promised the manager, recalling that the "power of purchase will improve. economy had already begun to improve. Despite the optimism displayed by the official, neither the IMF forecasts can anticipate a reorganization of wages that will ensure a vigorous boost to domestic demand. "These years have been tough and difficult, a healthy economy is not built overnight, the results will be visible in the months and years to come," said the Treasury Chief at the Palais des Finances during the year. an interview on the radio.

After learning about the 3.8% increase recorded by the CPI in February, private consultants, research centers and universities expect that price increases will exceed 30% this year. Some unions have negotiating capacity to achieve inflation-related improvements, but a large segment of the business is expected to recover additional sums to recover from the sharp wage cuts in 2018.

The purchasing power of wages has experienced its sharpest contraction since 2002. Due to the rise in prices and the recessive adjustment that accompanied the exchange rate, real income of workers averaged 12% retracement that conceals a deep dispersion between sectors. Falls were between 1 and 15%. Despite its magnitude, the loss of purchasing power is not a novelty since wage income accumulates a loss of 14% since 2015.

The deep recessive adjustment that followed the devaluation and process of structural transformations opened in late 2015 disrupted the equalization effect provided by collective bargaining. The increasing dispersion of wages, higher than that recorded, not only increases the inequality in wage employment, but fragments and weakens the wage claim of 2019.

This is not the first time the official promises a recovery in purchasing power: "The increase in wages of the year will win a significant shift in inflation," he said on August 2 2017. The return in force has not materialized dimensions predicted by the official. Wages represent an improvement of only 2%, which does not recover the ground lost during the first two years of the Cambiemos government.

"We are no longer forced to leave the default, we must not leave the shares, the economy is ready to lower inflation and to establish a link between several years of growth and a much better health than it was three or four years ago, "said yesterday at Dujovne CNN. Radio to reiterate the failed formula of expansive austerity.

The promised wage recovery should not only be combined with the increasing dispersion of wages, but it must also overcome the lasting destruction of jobs. The Argentine Integrated Forecast System (SIPA) data shows that the economy generated 191,300 jobs in December less than a year ago. Most of these positions affected by the collapse of the domestic market, private investment and adjustment of public spending come from private sector employees, where 130,800 jobs were destroyed. Thus, they have marked the largest decline in the workforce since 2002.

@ tomaslukin