MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Several Argentine economy indicators rebounding

Mrs. Kirchner and Minister Boudou anticipate a thriving 2010

Argentina’s November primary fiscal surplus increased sharply over a year ago, 46.2%, reflecting a better performance of the country’s economy, pointed out Economy minister Amado Boudou confirming what President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner had anticipated on Monday.

Boudou highlighted that primary fiscal surplus of 2.8 billion pesos in November “reflects how much Argentina has grown during last year's trimester“. Last year, Argentina reported a November fiscal surplus of 1.9 billion pesos, flat from a year earlier after sharp year-on-year gains in the previous months. During the first 11 months of this year, the fiscal surplus totaled 12.2 billion pesos, Boudou said.

”Argentina is getting ready for a thriving 2010“ said Boudou during a press conference. Previously, he had held a meeting with President Cristina Kirchner at Government House. The Economy Minister reported the official statistics accompanied by Treasury Secretary Juan Carlos Pessoa and Assistant Budget Secretary Raúl Rigo.

Pezoa highlighted that ”November was the first month in which primary surplus shows an increase in comparison to the exact same period of time last year“. Official report details that within primary expenditure, the increase in ”Social Security Provisions“ and ”City to Province Transfers“ are remarked. The growth in ”Direct Investment“ was also a significant one.

The government's accounts ”are recovering,“ having lost ground earlier this year due to lower consumption, said Boudou. Mrs. Kirchner said that revenue had dropped by 34 billion pesos so far this year.

But despite the decline, revenue started to bounce back in November due to increased social security contributions, as well as higher revenue from sales, fuel and export taxes, the government said.

In October, Argentina had reported a 73% drop in its primary surplus on the year, while its overall accounts plunged deep into the red as the state kept spending to offset the effects of the economic crisis. That situation improved in November. After debt payments, the overall government accounts posted a surplus of 2.3 billion pesos.

On Monday during a celebration at an Argentine car manufacturing plant also announced that “half a million cars have been sold this year in Argentina,” and added that she expected “700.000 cars to be sold in Argentina in 2010.”

The president celebrated the trust “Volskwagen is showing toward Argentina” and thanked the company for “betting on us” and for “giving value to our country and our work force.”

”We need more people like Viktor Kliman (Volkswagen’s head in Argentina) in the country, people who trust Argentines and see them as trustable workers,“ she said before wishing good luck to the ”Amarok“, the company's first pick-up truck, which will be produced in Argentina.

Mrs. Kirchner also announced a 15.7 billion US dollars trade balance surplus for 2009 ”so far“, although ”this has been the worst economic year in the history of the world”. Last year's Argentine trade balance surplus was of 11.7 billion USD. Total trade slumped because of the global crisis and is down 30% compared to 2008.