MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Economic collapse in Argentina worsens in a volatile day: Macri blames uncertainty
On the day when the dollar reached 47.30 pesos and country risk exceeded 1,000 points, Macri said that markets “today doubted Argentina” Argentina lived on Thursday another day in which the dollar rebounded and the country risk exceeded 1000 points. President Mauricio Macri criticized the “short-term” view of the markets and the Central Bank (BCRA) had to intervene by positioning the interest rate at 70% and diverting the futures market to contain the demand on the currency, preventing it from reaching the maximum accorded of 51.45 pesos.
”The IMF (International Monetary Fund) gave us the largest loan in the history of the agency, but the markets are different, it's another world, they're guys behind a computer, they buy, they sell, they have a short-term vision, they are looking for the opportunity. And today they hesitated,“ Macri said, assuring that ”the markets doubted” the government's plan to “follow this path ”.
The president warned, in the same vein as Finance Minister Nicolás Dujovne, that the “electoral uncertainty” will continue to influence the economic variables.
Finally, the wholesale dollar closed 95 cents above Wednesday's value at 44.90 Argentine pesos, after having surpassed 46 pesos earlier. In the retail market, the ticket showed a similar behavior and finished a peso up to 45.90 pesos, after having exceeded 47 on the screens of Banco Nación (BNA).
Regarding the criticism on the the president for his political and economic management, he said –regarding to Kirchners era– that ”yesterday and today they doubted our conviction to continue on this path. Many believe that the past was better, but the vast majority of Argentines do not want to go back. This noise was generated by that.”
For its part, in Uruguay the dollar rose again on Thursday in the local market and negotiated in the wholesale average to 34.64 Uruguayan pesos a value 0.37% higher than the session of the previous day.
In this country, the dollar accumulates an increase of almost 7% in the year.
Meanwhile, in Brazil the dollar fell on Thursday and was trading at 3.9576 reais per unit.
Top Comments
Disclaimer & comment rules-
Read all commentsMauricio Macri is a fascinating character. He has been the Argentina president for over three years, the country's economy is crumbling, and he blames everyone but him for it.
Apr 26th, 2019 - 12:51 am 0After blaming the past CFK government and also an eventual future CFK government. He has blamed entrepreneurs, the Turkish crisis, the Brazilian crisis, changes coming from the U.S., etc. Now is the turn of the markets to be the bad boys.
Macri, of course, is in total denial. The distrust of the markets increases as time goes by and the government remains utterly incapable of addressing the rapidly worsening situation (Macri has repeatedly indicated that he is in the good path and won't be changing anything).
Thus ends another “free-market” experiment in Latin America.
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