“I hope I live up to expectations.” With an unusual harmony of humility, Sergio Massa takes the reins of the battered team this Wednesday Argentina economy. The “expectations” in the Peronist government are many. Minister Alberto Fernandez It had to get rid of the two ministers who signed the deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to refinance the $44,000 million demanded by the previous administration, Martín Guzmán, and Silvina Batakis, who is short on time in this strategic portfolio. three weeks: If the rise in the dollar price is not stopped, it has been swallowed up by inflation, which will close this year in triple digits and pull Massa down.
“We are starting a phase in government that we will successfully pass,” said Fernandez. While he was sworn in as “super minister”. The president considered the “capacity” and “courage” of the man who could save his administration or be only part of the declared collapse. Incorporating expressions of the left and conservatism, Fernández called for the unity of Peronism, a political movement that turns its internal fighting into a sport “to move forward.”
Markets are waiting for the peso to depreciate to bless the incoming administration. But Massa initially seems reluctant to take this measure.. “All that devaluation shocks produce is poverty and a massive transfer of resources,” he said, promising to work hard to get this country to have a 3.6 percent increase in GDP this year despite the lack of international reserves. % can reduce growing social inequality. “We have to grow with inclusiveness”, aforementioned. In this sense, he urged businessmen and unions to discuss how salaries eroded by the high cost of living could be improved.
Desires have a limit: reality itself. Massa should include the price of the North American currency, which is the main factor in the escalation of inflation, rTo strengthen the depleted coffers of the Central Bank (BCRA) and at the same time reduce the fiscal deficit. In the coming weeks, he expects the main exporting industries to liquidate their sales and enter approximately $5,000 million into the BCRA on the basis of concessions unheard of months ago. In return, Argentina will receive 1.2 billion in the same currency from international organizations. The new minister promised Maintaining goals agreed with the IMF. In this regard, he assured that the first contacts with the organization were “fruitful”. In this sense, he did nothing but repeat what his predecessors had said. It therefore called for progress in reducing subsidies to rates of utilities, primarily gas and electricity, and better use of the money invested in social schemes distributed in a 40 percent country. poor. The minister hoped that he would soon announce other new measures to build more confidence in the markets.
political ambitions
Massa also has “expectations” of his own: if he avoids the collapse announced by the financial gurus and the right-wing opposition, he will be in a better position to fulfill his most cherished dream, thereby becoming a competitive candidate. In the 2023 presidential election, Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner confirmed her arrival at the Ministry of Economy. During his first government (2007-2011), he appointed him prime minister. They finally came face to face. In the numerous Wikileaks documents on Argentina that journalist Santiago O’Donnell revealed in his book ArgenleaksMassa told US diplomacy that he hated the Kirchners. The anger was mutual and lasted for years. They eased their pain to beat Mauricio Macri at the ballot box in 2019. In these unpredictable hours, they too are allies.
“he is a great leader What does Argentina need,” said Malena Galmarini, the wife of the new economic helmsman. There is no shortage of observers who compare Massa’s arrival in the Peronist government with what happened to the sociologist. Fernando Henrique Cardoso In 1994, when he became the Minister of Economy of Brazilian President Itamar Franco and successfully carried out a stabilization plan in the neighboring country, which is still ongoing. Inflation rose from 1100% to 1% in one year. Cardoso was victorious in the crusade, and the Brazilians handed him the presidency in elections held against him. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, twice.
Cardoso is a leading intellectual who had a strong influence in the region in the 1960s. Massa has a very modest library and is not known to have a particular fondness for books. But no one doubts what Fernandez calls “courage”, which some analysts describe as the audacity of proportions in trying to take charge of an unstable economy. His wife was already expecting this: He will do the impossible to move forward. “If you have to put your hand in shit, you have to”,