Who is responsible for the Argentine economic crisis

The New York Times badyzes the new economic and financial crisis in Argentina that erupted after the "unexpected result" of the STEP elections, according to which the formula Alberto Fernandez-Cristina Kirchner beat President Mauricio Macri's presidential formula by almost 15 times. , 6 points.

"The Argentineans remember the role played by the International Moment Fund (IMF) during the last recession, and they also remember the improvement of their lives with Kirchnerism." So begins the opinion rating Mark Weisbrot, expert in Latin American economics and economics, underlines the responsibility of Mauricio Macri's management for the turbulence of those days that devalued the peso by 19%, discussed the possibility of paying off debts and went back to shake the gondolas at the rate of inflation.

Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Political Research in Washington, president of Just Foreign Policy, holds Mauricio Macri's government accountable, criticizes the deal with the IMF and congratulates Kirchner's management.

"The Fernández coalition attributes its victory to the failure of Macri's economic policy because it is guilty of the economic crisis, the recession and the country's high inflation rate. said fearing a future government Kirchner was responsible for the financial turmoil after the elections, as well as problems in the economy since he came to power more than three and a half years ago, "said Weisbrot. He argues that this logic of guilt is "almost archetypal" and this is repeated in several countries where the ruling party is facing the center-left – in the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Greece.

The author discusses the economic indicators of the two efforts and discusses the agreement with the International Monetary Fund and the following sentence: "Collective memory and consciousness can now determine the outcome of this recurrent debate on the economy and, with him, the general elections of October 27 and perhaps a large part of the future of Argentina.

Weisbrot continues to talk about the evolution of the market and states: "In the case of Argentina, there is the electoral defeat of a government whose economic policies have clearly failed and a victory for rivals stemming from a period of solid and widely shared economic growth. . "

For the author of the note, "from the point of view of an economist or a social scientist, it is difficult to understand why we should fear Kirchnerism" and enumerates a series of policies economic and indicators that show that "the Kirchner governments they have been among the most successful in the Western Hemisphere".

Among these, he notes: "Independent calculations have shown a reduction of 71% of poverty and 81% of extreme poverty, the establishment of one of the conditional cash transfer programs for the poorest poor. Latin America: a 42% increase in GDP per capita, according to the IMF, to halve unemployment and economic inequality ". And he concludes that during Kirchner's twelve years of power, "significant improvements in the quality of life of most Argentines" were generated.

However, this indicates the decline of growth in recent years of Cristina's presidency, caused by some "mistakes" made, added to "an external economic blow". The last point, the specialist is ruling on the decision of the New York Court of Appeal that in 2012, "have taken hostage more than 90% of the creditors of Argentina to pay vulture funds "and the blockade of the United States government. credit from international lenders such as the Inter-American Development Bank.

How much of this economic crisis and poor performance is the responsibility of its predecessor?
On the contrary, Weisbrot describes the economic policies of Macrismo and lists the indicators since the beginning of his mandate and his sentence: "Poverty has increased considerably, per capita income has fallen, unemployment has increased, interest rates are short. The term has soared from 32% to 75% today, inflation has risen from 18% to 56% and public debt has risen from 53% to over 86% of GDP.

Weisbrot wonders:How much of this economic crisis and poor performance is the responsibility of its predecessor? "And declares the loan of 57,000 million dollars that Macri asked the IMF in 2018. He said that" the strategy of the program was to restore the confidence of investors through a stricter fiscal and monetary policy ", the author says the opposite result: "the measures have slowed down the economy and undermined investor confidence," he says.

For Weisbrot, "the government has squandered over $ 16,000 million to prevent the peso from declining" and has contracted a public debt that "deserves attention" because it is not part of the legacy from the previous government. The author believes that "history repeats itself, although in this case the IMF has a stronger alliance with the government than it was with twenty years" and that the Fernández-Fernández alliance should "indicate how they are thinking of getting out of this disaster. "

Finally, on the subject of the IMF, Weisbrot explains the political imagination that the organization has in the Argentine culture and concludes: "as in 2003, the economy can not recover under the conditions agreed with the IMF, it will have to renegotiate ".

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