MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
A good one for Macri: MSCI decides to reclassify Argentina as an emerging market
Index provider MSCI said on Wednesday it will reclassify Argentina as an emerging market and begin including Saudi Arabia in that classification, sharply broadening the investor base for both countries in a move that could be supportive of their equity markets. The decisions will be effective beginning in mid-2019. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesRg is a lost cause.
Jun 21st, 2018 - 04:47 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Tear it all down and start over.
They'd have better luck as a BOT.
“A good one for Macri.”
Jun 22nd, 2018 - 11:06 pm - Link - Report abuse -2What a distasteful headline and an insult to Argentines.
It may indeed be a 'good one for Macri' only because the guy has significant funds in offshore accounts that make those assets larger each time the peso takes a hit.
The MSCI's opportunistic upgrading of Argentina comes at a time when the country is on its way to a deeper crisis than recently seen.
Such crisis will have been largely self-inflicted by a team of CEOs in charge of the country since December 2015.
Definancing the state by quashing export taxes to agri-food and mining products as well as eliminating several taxes to the wealthy was a start.
It continued with persistent inflation, which has impacted on workers wages and retirees' fixed income.
It went further by deregulating capital movements, allowing for foreign speculative operators to buy government bonds yielding high interest rates and then taking off whenever it suits them--as shown during the recent run. Capital flight under Macri has reached catastrophic proportions.
It also opened the country doors wide to an indiscriminate amount of imports, which has undermined the domestic productive sector and permitted significant volumes of currency flight.
Free availability of dollars at convenient prices has encouraged Argentines to undertake tourism travel abroad - nice, but this has added to the bleeding of the country's currency.
In any event, the MSCI does not owe any loyalty to Argentina but to foreign investors, which will continue the party while some crumbs remain available.
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