MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Batakis: Dollars needed from agriculture and from not vacationing abroad

Batakis also announced there would be no increase in export duties

Argentina's newly-appointed Economy Minister Silvina Batakis Wednesday insisted the country needed a more efficient agricultural productivity and the ensuing liquidation of assets through the official currency exchange scheme to add to the Treasury's coffers.

 Regarding the right of Argentines to travel abroad, Batakis stressed that “people have the right to take a vacation, but we have to manage the reserves and we will take all the measures so that those dollars are transferred to the productive sector.”

”The right to travel (abroad) collides with the right to create jobs,“ she argued in a statement that earned her more enemies than she already had among middle-class Argentines. ”Dollars are scarce and have to be made available to expand the productive matrix. When purchases are made abroad we are damaging the future of all Argentines,“ she added in a TV interview.

”Every economy that grows needs to import and we have an industrial sector that needs to continue deploying,“ the minister explained. ”Every time the economy grows one point, imports grow three, what happened is that now they grew more.“

Regarding social welfare handouts, Batakis explained that there was a ”multiplicity of plans and subsidies“ that the Government was ”analyzing in order to channel them efficiently.“

After a report from US bank Wells Fargo said that Argentina may have to face a new peso devaluation in the coming quarters, Batakis said that ”we do not see any devaluation expectations“ and counted on ”a record trade balance“ in the coming months.

Batakis also announced there would be no increase in export duties. ”We have to work on a greater articulation with the different government areas, but not on creating new taxes,“ she stressed.

Regarding the current political crisis in the country, Batakis claimed that ”between Alberto Fernández and Cristina Kirchner there is no fight; there is talk, discussion, debate, tension and conflict resolution. There was a moment of tension and it was resolved with my appointment.“

When asked about Argentina's future in the short term, the minister replied that ”in the economy circuit they know how I have been working. From my previous managements it can be deduced where I am heading for.“

She also pointed out that ”I am a political militant because it is the way to transform people's reality.“
”I believe in the role of the State, which has proven to be necessary. There must be an efficient State,” she went on.