Almost four million barrels of diesel and gasoline were shipped from Europe and the US to Argentina where a recent major fire in the country’s main refinery significantly diminished the supply of refined produce. The situation could extend for another two years, according to private estimates from the oil industry.
Argentina's natural gas imports rose 74% to 28.4 million cubic meters/d in March, compared with 16.3 million cu m/d in the year-earlier period, the country’s Energy Secretariat said Monday. Imports were up 16% compared with 24.5 million cu m/d in February, according to a monthly data report.
Defence minister Arturo Puricelli said that Argentines “are not prepared to tolerate the usurpation” of the Malvinas Islands ‘for the rest of our lives’ and the honour and glory for those who fought in the South Atlantic “is going to be recalled until we obtain absolute and exclusive sovereignty over our Islands”.
Argentina expressed on Tuesday its discomfort over the unheard of attitude displayed by the UN Special Rapporteur, Gabriela Knaul, who urged the Cristina Fernández administration to reconsider the Council of Magistrates reform and injunction regulation bills.
“Under the corrupt populist government of President Cristina Fernandez Argentina is back on the road to ruin” is the kick off for an extremely critical report to be discussed by the US Congress and which was drafted by Douglas Farah, senior research fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Centre under the heading of “Back to the future”.
Five Argentine and Chilean Patagonia ports have teamed up to promote their tourism attractions and potential for the cruise industry by launching a hardcover limited edition book (1.000), in English and Spanish, with digital support under the heading of “Patagonia, cruises destination”.
The ‘parallel’ or ‘blue’ dollar in Argentina which last week soared day after day to reach on Friday a record 9.30 Pesos, on Monday edged down four cents to 9.26 Pesos while the official ‘dollar’ remained stable at 5.13 and 5.19 Pesos (buying and selling).
The Argentine government is considering different options to contain the current skyrocketing of the US dollar, but according to the financial media there are different positions in the cabinet of President Cristina Fernandez. One of those calls for direct interventions while the other adopts a more passive attitude saying the issue is speculative and ‘marginal’.
Argentina which the IMF censured for underreporting inflation less than three months ago after three warnings over the past two years, last week authorized the deposit of 400 million dollars with the Washington-based lender to increase the nation’s access to emergency cash.
Argentina’s Federal Planning minister Julio de Vido called on Buenos Aires province mayors to defend the Cristina Fernandez government model and predicted a solid victory in the mid term legislative elections of next October.