MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine government monthly report: “signs of slow recovery”

Cabinet Chief Anibal Fernandez addressing congress

Argentina’s cabinet chief Aníbal Fernández reported there were signs of “a slow recovery” in the economy, during his monthly address to the Congress. “The usual soothsayers were wrong in their predictions,” he said, claiming that GDP fell less abruptly in Argentina than in Peru, Chile or even Brazil.

Aníbal Fernández said on Wednesday that those favourable conditions were provided by the “intervention of the State in the private sector” during the international crisis.

”It allowed the maintenance of job sources, avoided the lower classes to suffer from the impact (of the crisis), and permitted many workers to keep on receiving a salary and not to be dismissed,“ he added.

”The GDP in Brazil, Chile and Peru fell more abruptly than in Argentina. In the second quarter it went down 0,8% in Argentina.”

Aníbal Fernandez was answering the Lower House's lawmakers' questions as part of his monthly Congress briefing.

The speech had a special relevance as the Argentine Lower House was about to vote on the extension of the Economic Emergency Law, that grants the Cabinet Chief the power to reallocate budget without parliamentary authorizations.