Argentine economic activity expands 8.1% in May; 8.9% in five months

Tuesday, July 19th 2011 - 05:59 UTC

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Economic activity in Argentina expanded 8.1% in May over a year ago and 8.9% in the first five months of the year according to the country’s Statistics and Census Office, Indec. Read full article

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Redhoyt
Hmmm .... interesting !

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/809d7abe-b174-11e0-9444-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=rss#axzz1SVaR4Wpf
Jul 19th, 2011 - 09:13 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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Forgetit87
I don't see anything interesting in the link. As is typical for the Financial Times, it tries to prove a thesis adopted a priori - in this case, that Argentina's recovery is owed mostly to the 'commodities boom' - by resorting to stereotypes while refusing to disclose numbers.

“...[T]he boom owes much to global factors...”

Then the author parades some stereotypes on Argentina's export sector: China's demand for commodities; Brazil's demand for cheap Argentinian cars.

However:
1 - Unlike most other South American couries, Argentina's terms of trade with China has decreased over the last 5 years;
2 - Brazil has a trade surplus with Argentina, and Brazilian exports to Argentina grow more than Argentinian exports to Brazil. That means that trade with Brazil actually has a negative impact on Argentina's growth;
3 - and most importantly, Argentina's current account surplus is far too small (less than 1% of GDP in 2010) to argue that its economy is export-dependent. By comparison, countries known to rely on export to maintain growth - eg, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Norway, Venezela, China, Malaysia - had current account surpluses that ranging from 5 to 30% of GDP in 2010.
Jul 20th, 2011 - 02:30 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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