Wednesday, June 6th 2012 - 22:59 UTC

Argentine president pledges to turn her dollar savings into Pesos and urged ministers to follow

Argentine President Cristina Fernández insisted Wednesday on the need of saving in Pesos instead of US dollars and announced that she would “pesify” her dollar fixed-term bank deposit, urging her ministers to do the same.

CFK pointed to Anibal Fernandez as the first of the list who must dump his dollars

CFK has declared three million dollars in fixed-term bank deposits. Likewise the Argentine cabinet and top officials from the Cristina Fernandez administration are estimated to have savings of over ten million dollars, according to Buenos Aires media reports based on their affidavits.

During a ceremony at the Government House where she made several announcements, the President urged Argentine people to recall the 2001 economic crisis, when “many people and some journalists” demanded a dollarization of the economy.

“I am surprised at the fact that there are people and journalists who are demanding a dollarization of the economy. If the dollarization had succeeded in 2001, we would all be dead,” the president added.

“Did you forget what happened?” she asked, assuring savers who were affected by the “corralito” they will receive Boden 2012 bonds on August 3.

Several ministers and close allies of the president called last week for the country to start “thinking in pesos.”

“You are the first in the queue to change your dollar savings into Pesos”, said Cristina Fernandez pointing to Senator and former cabinet chief Anibal Fernandez, one of the most outspoken preachers in favour of dumping dollars and trusting Pesos until he had to admit most of his savings were in greenbacks.

Likewise a report from the well known journalist Jorge Lanata who visited the Cristina Fernandez family posh hotels in El Calafate, Patagonia, showed that rates were still been billed in US dollars.

The near-impossibility of buying dollars or “dollar clamp” at the official rate is driving some savers and investors to pay a hefty premium in the black market.

Others are withdrawing dollars from banks and stashing them under the mattress or in safety deposit boxes, fearing moves by the government to forcibly “de-dollarize” the economy. Officials have strongly denied any such plan.

Meanwhile, the central bank has been snapping up almost all the dollars available as it seeks to replenish the foreign reserves earmarked for debt repayments.

So far this year, the monetary authority has bought about 7 billion dollars.

In support of her arguments President Cristina Fernandez mentioned stats from the Tax Revenue Office, AFIP saying that only 3% of Argentines hoard dollars.

“I’m president of 40 million Argentines, and therefore it is my job to look after the interests of the 40 million”.

The Argentine president also referred to a legal demand started by a solicitor from Mar del Plata claiming the government impeded him from purchasing 10 dollars for his grandchildren which was accepted by a court. However the demand was later rejected.

“Before any comments, I would say the grandpa is quite a scrooge: only ten dollars for his grandchildren!”

CFK added that behind the court case was more than the controversy over dollars, “rather, as a solicitor I can see an attempt to begin the litigation industry”.
 

Published in: Economy, Politics, Argentina.
Tags: AFIP, Aníbal Fernández, Argentina, Argentine peso, Cristina Fernandez.

24 comments Feed

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1 Simon68 (#) Jun 06th, 2012 - 11:10 pm Report abuse
Well that's a step in the right direction, but US$3m is only a drop in the ocean of her fortune, what about the US$370m that she holds?

I'd be much more impressed if she “pesified” the whole lot instead of about 1% of it.

Still she gets a couple of points for trying.
2 Condorito (#) Jun 06th, 2012 - 11:11 pm Report abuse
What exchange rate will she use?
3 Simon68 (#) Jun 06th, 2012 - 11:14 pm Report abuse
6 to 1 I'll bet!!!
4 rnbgr (#) Jun 06th, 2012 - 11:17 pm Report abuse
Good move, (except the shot at the Grandfather) are the CFK hotels going to change to Pesos only ?
5 Simon68 (#) Jun 06th, 2012 - 11:56 pm Report abuse
She really shot herself in the foot over the grandpa scrooge!
Whoever set up that little joke for her speech will no doubt be joining the growing ranks of the unemployed!
6 Chicureo (#) Jun 07th, 2012 - 12:12 am Report abuse
Simon, I'm truly sorry for you and all the decent good Argentineans that are about to see the Peso collapse. This is an act of silly desperation which will cause more anxiety and insecurity within your country. The comments in the Chilean financial sector are that CFK can not much longer hold up the house of cards that are on the verge of falling apart any moment.
Sad, really sad, but the voters pushed this through.
7 KFC de Pollo (#) Jun 07th, 2012 - 03:28 am Report abuse
her dollars en blanco or en negro?

smoke and mirrors!
8 GreekYoghurt (#) Jun 07th, 2012 - 05:06 am Report abuse
KFC: “Unemployed grandpa can only afford $10? Hahhaha, Qu'ils mangent de la brioche!”
*goes back to a Maximo hotel charging in dollars*
9 Idlehands (#) Jun 07th, 2012 - 06:19 am Report abuse
I imagine they'll dump dollars but won't be buying Pesos with it. It will probably be used to buy real estate - or gold.
10 willi1 (#) Jun 07th, 2012 - 07:34 am Report abuse
3 million - that´s only that what is deposited in arg - the big rest is in Switzerland.
11 GreekYoghurt (#) Jun 07th, 2012 - 10:17 am Report abuse
@9 If they follow precedent then they'll buy hotels, just like KFC, and Maximo have been doing with all their newly found income.
12 Welsh Wizard (#) Jun 07th, 2012 - 01:06 pm Report abuse
Is it at all pertinent that they are talking about “fixed term bank deposit” rather than “we will pesify all our US$ savings” I noted that on a couple of blogs the Argentinean bloggers said that this was a nonsense as they could just be turned back at the end of the fixed term.

Do any for our Argentinean friends have any insight?
13 Simon68 (#) Jun 07th, 2012 - 01:39 pm Report abuse
6 Chicureo (#)
Jun 07th, 2012 - 12:12 am
Thanks for the sympathy, there is no way she can keep this together for more than a month or two. I foresee a very big crash. The only saving grace of all this is that it isn't the first time, it is a sort of cyclical happening with the peronist governments, so we are innoculated against despair to a certain extent.

12 Welsh Wizard (#)
I don't think Kretina will leave us with a single dollar, she's going to use every one she can get her hands on to try to keep the economy going for as long as she can before leaving to join Nestor in Venezuela!!!!!
14 British_Kirchnerist (#) Jun 07th, 2012 - 05:53 pm Report abuse
Great move my Queen, if even seasoned haters like #1 are calling it a step in the right direction it really shows what a brilliant political genius she is to turn such hard hearts =) As for the dig at the grandad, I could say she was let down by a flunky but I actually think she comes across as one of those rare and precious politicians who actually write their own material, in other words she says what she means and means what she says. And isnt it weird that he only wanted to give them $10; if he was poor and that was all he could afford then by all accounts he wouldn't be using dollars in the first place; if he was one of the dollarised class, ie the rich, then surely a tenner is, well, scroogish?!
15 yankeeboy (#) Jun 07th, 2012 - 06:29 pm Report abuse
CFK is an arrogant as she is stupid as she is corrupt. So she is going to change the U$ she has in Argentina, big deal, what about all the other U$ all over the world?
I hope she has the helicopter on stand by when it all goes to h*ll. Might be sooner than most people are thinking...
16 GreekYoghurt (#) Jun 07th, 2012 - 06:31 pm Report abuse
@14 What you're doing there Freud called 'Distortion'. It's pathological, and typically used by people like yourself to align their perceptions with their subjective internal realities.

The fact is a 'typical' Grandfather wanted to give his children some dollars and wasn't allowed, this is while KFCs daughter spends dollars and dollars and dollars in her NYC penthouse, and her son conveniently loses 2.3 Billion USD given to his sturm-abteilung to buy new jets.

You can try to mold your reality any way you like, it's just us that have to see you doing it and questioning your motivations.
17 richardzleeson (#) Jun 08th, 2012 - 10:30 am Report abuse
There are several sites that offer printable coupons or Printapons. If you print them through a site like Printapons or coupons, you can receive points for using the coupons you print in addition to getting the coupon savings.
18 v for victory (#) Jun 08th, 2012 - 06:55 pm Report abuse
Take Action!!

Stop British taxpayers’ money supporting World Bank loans to Argentina (outstanding 16.2 BILLION). The United States has already indicated that they will veto any new handouts to Argentina.

A goverment e-petion has been setup at www.StopFundingArgentina.org

Would recommend everyone to sign it.
19 Britishbulldog (#) Jun 08th, 2012 - 07:35 pm Report abuse
Stop all funding to this corrupt country called Argentina bring down this corrupt country and all who govern Argentina.
www.StopFundingArgentina.org

Anyone reading this outside of Argentina sign THE FORM NOW.
20 jerry (#) Jun 09th, 2012 - 12:57 am Report abuse
16, you are so correct.
21 Britishbulldog (#) Jun 09th, 2012 - 04:54 am Report abuse
Stop all funding to this corrupt country called Argentina bring down this corrupt country and all who govern Argentina.
www.StopFundingArgentina.org

Anyone reading this outside of Argentina sign THE FORM NOW.
22 Pirat-Hunter (#) Jun 09th, 2012 - 02:52 pm Report abuse
Leading by example is a strong force, if thisreport is true we might see a strong Argentine economy for decades to come.
23 Simon68 (#) Jun 09th, 2012 - 04:16 pm Report abuse
22 Pirat-Hunter (#)
Jun 09th, 2012 - 02:52 pm

WTF are you smoking?
24 Leiard (#) Jun 09th, 2012 - 04:39 pm Report abuse
Even before she was elected president of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner carried the haze of corruption. In the most famous case, an emissary from Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, was discovered at the Buenos Aires airport carrying a briefcase stuffed with $800,000 in cash, destined, he later told the FBI, to support Kirchner’s presidential bid. Kirchner denied the allegation. Within Argentina, many question the huge fortune Kirchner and her late husband Nestor amassed since taking public office. Her declared personal wealth stands at $13.8 million, up from $500,000 when the couple first entered national politics. Kirchner cites income from real estate and hotels the couple had purchased to explain the 2,600 percent return on the couple’s investment purse. Corruption watchers complain that her government has neutered government oversight, giving auditing posts to cronies compromised by conflicts of interest. The result: corruption cases take an average of 14 years to work through the system, according to the non-profit Center for the Study and Prevention of Economic Crimes, and only 15 in 750 cases have led to convictions.

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