Argentine construction slides and could worsen because of US dollar restrictions
Argentina's construction activity experienced a notable slowdown in April, the latest indicator pointing to a cooling of economic growth. Looking ahead prospects are not encouraging given the strict restrictions on US dollars, which is the main currency for real estate operations in Argentina.
Construction activity slid 5.9% on the month and was down 3.8% on the year, the national statistics agency Indec reported Thursday. That compares with gains of 6.8% on-month and 5.2% on-year reported in March.
Construction surged last year as the country saw an 8.9% expansion of GDP. Residents also poured cash into real estate amid rampant inflation, estimated by economists at an annual rate of well over 20%.
Argentines have traditionally put their money into land and durable goods as a hedge against inflation.
The central bank's latest forecast puts economic growth at 6% this year, though many economists are expecting growth to be flat or even a contraction.
Construction activity could suffer a further downfall because of the very strict control on the purchase of US dollars by the country’s Tax Office and Central bank, when most real estate transactions in Argentina are done in US dollars given the long established suspicion by common citizens of (all colour) governments’ currency value manipulation.
In related news real estate agent José Azpiroz Costa advised Argentine savers to choose to invest their money in properties as restrictions to the purchase to dollars increase, he said in a television debate.
Azpiroz Costa also revealed that the increasingly complicated task of purchasing dollars is reducing real estate operations, a key aspect of the economy”








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Watch property values start to plummet as people get desperate for U$. It's hard to pay rent when you are unemployed and there is hyperinflation. I made a lot of money buying property from desperate RGs in 2001-3.
It is in these examples that I would really like to divulge some of the salient instances of éclat in my young life... But alas, silencing people in this website for posterity with trenchant and confuting remarks is not important enough to unveil some secrets away.
I think he who cannot be named, is 'upset' with your post. :o)
Looks like you will be able to repeat the exercise again very shortly!
(no language skills are not decidedly personal, it is the medium we use to communicate here, duh)
Funny the commentary above comes from a man living in a country whose land is de facto argie. :)
Jun 02nd, 2012 - 04:15 pm
I think the article is speaking of citizens of all colours rather than governments of all colours.
I inquired again just for investment purposes and the prices had gone up like 3 times...
Real estate is not an investment, it is either an expense (in exchange for security of residence), or a somewhat calculated gamble when you are doing activities in markets experiencing housing turmoil.
Your country is still learning that lesson, to the benefit of others.
Study: Using big words needlessly makes you seem stupider
Everyone knows how college students will try to make themselves sound smarter by reaching for the thesaurus and using big, ponderous words they barely understand. But now a new study shows that readers can see through this. Daniel Oppenheimer, a psychologist at Princeton, took a handful of writing samples and used a thesaurus to replace the simple words with needlessly flowery ones.
www.collisiondetection.net/mt/archives/2006/04/study_using_big.php
It''s like buying an expensive sports car to make up for a small appendage. It makes you look like a fool and everyone knows why you are doing it.
I'm not using a thesaurus, if you had any honesty you would know that many of the words I use are holophrastic (they convey the meaning of a concept in one word), and you can't look those up in a thesaurus.
Thesauruses are good for situations like ”instead of using the word 'colorful' (overused), how about another word: oh here, 'chromatic', cool.
But how do you look in a thesaurus for a word that replaces the prevailing moral and intellectual attitudes of a time period???
You know you can't.
I just happen to know the word zeitgeist, which does exactly that.
Same with for example 'agitprop', which I used recently. That word means using music or movies to convey a political message. I used that word to describe a country music song AmericanLight pasted.
How would you find in a thesaurus a word to explain agitprop”, if there is no other word.
Obviously, it proves that I know it because I learned it.
What a load of sh!t.
Your foray into sequipedalism redounded to your shame.
BTW did you convert your MASSIVE PESOS SAVINGS into U$ yet?
I don't see what the problem is with me using a broad vocab. Next time I type a more involved answer I will take the time to indite an excursus expounding why I chose the words I did.
I don't disclose personal information. I will say this, I never ensconce my eggs into one basket (see, that was a forced usage of a word, and incorrect too).
I did... Why should I take a study from a yuppy college seriously? Because he studied in a yuppy college?
Aha... Isn't this the same premise basically? It's biased perception. They state people with big vocabularies are dissembling, but where is the evidence? It seems more of an instance of prepossessive against high-end vocab than anything else, just like me derogating fancy colleges is prepossessive.
Classic case of transfer. People that don't understand high-level vocabulary feel dumb, so assume that the person using the high vocabulary must be doing so because he feels dumb. That is not very scientific at all.
I use the words I use for a reason, I don't swap. I have studied them for some time...
I can tell you the difference between debase and abase, slick and sleek, quaff and guzzle, and on and on.
The key is to know how to use the words. And I mostly do.
OF COURSE, as with anything, I may not use a world correctly. But guess what, we do it all the time even with the everyday common vocabulary, especially in nuncupative circumstnaces.
The only thing you gain is pity. You so try too hard.
For the record, I was using an analogy in terms of my prejudice towards expensive private universities. However, there's been many studies suggessting you do not get your money's worth in them necessarily. Furthermore, as long as you personally study hard and apply yourself, you could go to a university in South Sudan and excel.
I've seen your best University, UBA. The ceilings are falling down, the class sizes are 500+, graduation rate is abyssal, broken windows, no heat or a/c, exposed live wires, graffiti everywhere, Marxist signs everywhere, no toilet paper or doors in the bathrooms, it is gross AND ITS SUPPOSED TO BE THE BEST YOU HAVE.
And you try to slam Princeton,,,give me a break. maybe South Sudan U is better than anything you have in Argentina I would have no idea.
UBA is the best of Argentina? Say who, you?
You are a solipsistic simpleton.
Don't get me wrong k-12 in the US sucks compares to European systems where you can go from high school to dental or med school but at least I didn't have to be someone's friend to graduate. I went to Northwestern State, paid for my on state tuition and it was all good.
Argentina maybe the other extreme. UBA is probably the worst public university in Argentina. But let me give a simple example as to how numbers can be distorted by people like yankeeboy:
He claimed the graduation rate is abysmal. Actually, that is true when we take the numbers face value. Of course being the simpleton he is, he leaves the story at that and refuses to offer even a semblance of analysis. Allow me to do so:
Public universities in Argentina are irrestrictive admission. The only nation on EARTH, and UBA in particular. What does that mean? It means if you graduate from high school, you have a birth in 1st year classes. This doesn't occur in any other country. Not in the capitalist USA, not in communist Cuba or North Korea, not socialist Europe. Argentine is the lone example.
As a result, and surprise surprise, the dropout rate on the 1st year is massive. That is not the result of bad teaching (though I will admit that independent of this the quality is not the best at UBA), but obvious statistical reality. You have many high schoolers chancing it, and they don't make it.
That fact singlehandedly accounts for the supposed abysmal graduation rate of 20% (compared to 65% in the USA, 69% in Europe), since the base student body from which graduates emerge is far larger than your countries.
11.16 pct have a bachelors degree...
These are the US values
Educational attainment in the United States, Age 25 and Over (2011)[2]
Education Percentage
High school graduate 87.58%
Some college 56.86%
Associate's and/or Bachelor's degree 39.89%
Bachelor's degree 30.44%
Master's degree 7.95%
Doctorate or professional degree 3.00%
The best of both worlds would be colleges that allow everyone with high school degrees to attend 1st half-year classes, and if they prove to be great students then help finance the studies. It has been proven that many people are not good test takers, which is why I disagree with the US/European system of admissions that over-relies on testing (which is like taking a picture of you at a specific time, you could be photogenic or not, you could have been put together or just out of bed... it is a very unreliable measure of capability, which is why IQ tests are not taken as a defining factor to assess intelligence either).
I am a great test taker because I have a knack or 6th sense about what to study. That means nothing when it comes to my capability as a student.
Toby, so what are the names of the great Mendoza Universities? Can you post a link of their Int'l rankings? Or don't you believe those either?
How you spew such utter b/s is unbelievable, I seriously hope you don't believe yourself and are just screwing with us. If you truly believe even 10% of the nonsense you post you need psychological help.
So what happened to your BS in Physics, if you are a dentist now, or was that just BS?
While I was doing that I was working for a large retailer as a manager
... Well I promoted and promoted until I became a store mgr, director an so on.
Their home office is located in Bentonville AR, a couple of years back I was recruited to be a general director for another retailer on the furniture business and last year was recruited from there by the Bentonville guy s competitor s from Hoffman Estates Il.
The physics degree has been good to do financial analysis. Some day I may license as a dentist. So far so good with my current job.
Yankeeboy.. Most of the times I doubt the origins of people here... But I don't care about asking. I am no better than anyone else by being American. If I were Australian I would say it or Uruguayan or Bolivian.
As far as I know you could be some guy from Uruguay who watches the clients list ,90210, or another show and is taking clues of our lifestyle (I am not sure what American shows play there)
Hey no offense though you can be from wherever you are but if I am not where I say I am I don't know why my two children are speaking English to me right this second asking me to plug in their Xbox ...:-)...by the way school is out for the summer...lots of attention needed...
You can't stop yourself can't you my homunculus cyber fiend. Tell you what... list me all the Chinese/Indian collegues in your completely biased and ethnocentric western rankings... Not many.
Yet they are the ones producing all the engineers and software geniouses, not the USA. That shows you how useful your useless rankings are.
As usual you are quibbling and prevaricating being the simpleton that you are. You want to corner me by suggesting that if you don't go to Princeton or any such university, then your education will be poor. You are a disgusting cyber-patriciate who looks down on everyone not of your nationality, rank, education, financial position, or political views. Which means in real life you likely amount to nada.
Education is what you make of it to a large extent, you can protest and bewail all the livelong day, human determination is the greatest equalizer and factor in success, not the name of the college you attend or the passport you hold... which is all you have since your personal accomplishements are nugatory.
There are undoubtedly areas of confusion here.
You say that in the UK you can go from High School (what is laughingly known as 'Comprehensive Education in the UK') direct to med school or dentist school. This is the case BUT you need several A Levels to do so because these 'schools' are in fact Universities. It would seem your BS is a mid-way qualification between A Levels and a Bachelors Degree in the UK.
Nowadays, having a Bachelor of Science Degree from a UK University allows you to enter a Professional Organisation, such as the Institute of Mechanical Engineers BUT to become Chartered (the same as Registered in the USA) requires a Masters Degree AND a number of years of field experience.
I am a retired Professional Electrical Mechanical Engineer, living in Uruguay.
I left walmart in 2010 and joined different organizations . I work for the other guys doing a similar slightly higher job now.
ChrisB:
You are totally right I had forgotten about the A levels.
Bachelors degrees include accounting, business administration , chemistry , physics. Law school( 3 years) requires for instance , a bachelors degree. You can be accepted ( according to the schools) to dentistry, medical, law an other s hooks with just the first two years of the bachelors ( I have rarely seen this happening)
Universities here are called simple colleges . We call universities to the entire organization that holds colleges and specialty schools
There are several engineering degrees in America. They are a bachelor level, however many schools do not teach the entire curriculum, having many people doing the first two years (core) and then seeking for a school that specializes in engineering. The degree levels available in the US are associate (2 yrs ), bachelors (4 years with levels 1000 through 4000 classes, freshman 1000,Sophmore 2000,Junior 3000, Senior 4000), masters (levels 5000 to 6000), Phd (7000-8000), professional schools such as MD, Dentisty, OD, Law, etc.
To be accepted into college(university) you Muy generally pass either the SAT or ACT and hold a high school degree or GED.
Thank goodness I'm just a poor student with no degree yet, not European nor Adonis, haven't traveled in a few years, and make a banausic salary (if I work at all).
Just your average Jose. Except I have massive levels of learning.
Well to be honest with you, being under 30 and a Walmart Store Mgr pulling 6 digit bonuses every year and also behaving like a responsible citizen, a good husband and father who can provide for his family make a lot of people proud. Sadly my mother did not live to see the man I have become. Let me save you some time doing numbers Store Mgr salary for a wm over 80 million is 104,000 per year and the top bonus is 115 percent over that salary. Do the math, do you think I want to be pulling teeth and paying 25,000 plus a year in insurance premiums to make maybe 120 to 160 ( luckily and in these times maybe) .
I left walmart in 2010 and joined different organizations . I work for the other guys doing a similar slightly higher job now.
ChrisB:
You are totally right I had forgotten about the A levels.
Bachelors degrees include accounting, business administration , chemistry , physics. Law school( 3 years) requires for instance , a bachelors degree. You can be accepted ( according to the schools) to dentistry, medical, law an other s hooks with just the first two years of the bachelors ( I have rarely seen this happening)
Universities here are called simple colleges . We call universities to the entire organization that holds colleges and specialty schools
There are several engineering degrees in America. They are a bachelor level, however many schools do not teach the entire curriculum, having many people doing the first two years (core) and then seeking for a school that specializes in engineering. The degree levels available in the US are associate (2 yrs ), bachelors (4 years with levels 1000 through 4000 classes, freshman 1000,Sophmore 2000,Junior 3000, Senior 4000), masters (levels 5000 to 6000), Phd (7000-8000), professional schools such as MD, Dentisty, OD, Law, etc.
To be accepted into college(university) you Muy generally pass either the SAT or ACT and hold a high school degree or GED.
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