Uruguay’s fiscal performance exposed to “political limitations”, says S&P report

Wednesday, June 27th 2012 - 17:19 UTC

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Risk rating agency Standard & Poor’s praised Uruguay’s fiscal moderation in the last eight years since the budget’s fiscal deficit has been below 2% of GDP but criticized the “political limitations” which impede the achievement of a better performance. Read full article

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ChrisR
CERES mentioned again. 'Experts' who do not have to take the decisions themselves are good at handing out 'advice' without responsibility.

Until the bloated public sector is put under a lens (the problem is bigger than needing a microscope to find it) which seeks to reduce the headcount and transfer it to the commercial, productive area, things will never improve.

Just try and get service from ANY of the publicly owned companies and see how long you have to wait, only to be told to 'come back tomorrow'.

Mañana was one of the first words we learnt when we arrived 13 months ago.
Jun 27th, 2012 - 08:00 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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Des
I prefer a thousand times a “come back tomorrow” from a publicly owned company, rather than “we can't provide you health care because you don't have insurance”, how it happens in the US.
At least in Uruguay people don't go bankrupt when they get sick...I take that any day of the week...even at the cost of a bloated public sector.
Jun 28th, 2012 - 01:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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ChrisR
@2 Des

I understand what you are getting at, but I think you do not quite get what I am saying: for that I apologise.

I am British and have retired to Uruguay, which I think is a fabulous country populated by lovely people.

I am informed that anyone with a job WILL pay taxes on their earnings as well as the IVA, over-the-top fuel and utility prices. I made no comment about the public health system which, again, I can only say what my Uruguayo friends tell me. It seems it is very variable, depending on where you are in the country.

People who are employed by the government also 'pay' taxes: but where does it come from? Yes, they pay out of their remuneration and most likely believe THEY are paying income taxes, but they are not.

Governments do not 'earn' money, they spend the taxes paid by people working in the private sector and, some would say, have the 'profits' of the likes of UTE, OSE, ANTEL, ANCAP, BSE, etc. But these are illusionary, and here is why.

It frustrates me enormously that the lowly paid are carrying an unnecessary burden of tax. Would you like to pay HALF the tax you presently pay and have BETTER SERVICES? Impossible? No it is not.

The government is presently saying that they cannot entice more investment into the country without a bigger workforce. Wrong, it is already here and working for the government. By retraining half of their present headcount in all public businesses (not army, police and medical employees) to be useful private sector workers they could take in more companies who WANT to come here, and who would not?

These people would halve the fiscal drag of the government and by investing in new computers, MRI scanners, etc. they would be more effective at what they do. The taxes from the new workers would pay for this.

Also, Ministers need to understand that praising UTE for coping with rising costs by INCREASING PRICES is nothing other than extremely inflationary and frankly the economics of the madhouse.
Jun 28th, 2012 - 07:58 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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