MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

New Argentine economy minister confirms Kirchner’s model

Amado Boudu announced more of the same prescription

Argentine Economy minister Amado Boudu discarded the implementation of “shock measures” and anticipated some changes will take place “to strengthen some institutions”. But he emphatically confirmed the continuation on course of “the 2003 political project”.

“Don’t wait for shock measures” said the newly sworn minister interviewed by the Sunday press who emphasized that he will continue sustaining the two pillars of the current model, fiscal and trade surpluses to ensure employment and the creation of jobs.

“The idea that the new Economy minister takes office and makes a package of announcements is not to the essence of this government which has been working on a political project since 2003, and we are going to continue to reinforce the course and content, which is growth and domestic demand” added Boudu.

He was referring to the model imposed by the ruling couple, first by Nestor Kirchner who took office in May 2003 and later by his wife President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner who was elected in October 2007. Argentine analysts and the business community are convinced that no matter who’s the minister, the course of action and big decisions are taken by Mr. Kirchner

More specifically on the Statistics and Census Office which has been at the heart of the controversy since 2007, allegedly for manipulating indexes, particularly inflation, (which is linked to the bonus of sovereign bonds), “we are planning to work with the support form government universities granting the whole operation more credibility”.

“We are thinking of strengthening an institution”, he underlined adding that at Indec “undoubtedly much has been completed, but some things are missing”. “An institution can always be improved”.

When asked about Guillermo Moreno, the Domestic Trade minister who is targeted as the man behind all the prices system distortion in Argentina and his ousting is the main demand from the opposition, farmers and industrialists, Boudu indirectly confirmed him by saying “he’s a member of the staff who does his duty”.

However “we need to work to strengthen those things and areas that are working well, and introducing changes where they are needed in those areas which have to be improved”.

He added that measures will be linked to those issues which “we feel are not working appropriately or as well as we would like, and this has nothing to do with a certain member of the team, whether he’s in or out, otherwise we would be stigmatizing the whole operation to one person”.

Boudu anticipated he would be meeting with the leaders of the Argentine Industrial Union on Tuesday to talk about exports, investments, increasing production and creating jobs. He also mentioned he would have as standing consultant former Central Bank president Mario Blejer and would discuss issues with important economists such as Roberto Frenkel. “It’s good to hear other opinions; it is enlightening”.

Finally he praised the performance of the Central Bank and its management of the exchange rate and international reserves.

“The Central Bank has acted with prudence, adequately, helping us push ahead with an economic, social and political process which has given good results”.