MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine authorities ready to launch batch of economic measures

“Growth requires foreign currency, which today is scarce,” admitted President Fernández

Argentine President Alberto Fernández and newly-appointed Economy Minister Silvina Batakis reviewed over the weekend a series of measures to be launched shortly in a move to curb inflation and strengthen the Treasury's coffers.

Presidential Spokeswoman Gabriela Cerruti said the meeting lasted until 8 pm Sunday at the Olivos Presidential Residence and that the head of state “agreed with everything that she presented and made some suggestions that were incorporated by the Minister, who is going to finish working on them today with the economic cabinet.”

The measures are being drafted ahead of July's 14 announcement by the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INDEC) of the official inflation index for the month of June, which some foresee around 5%.

Cerruti also said Batakis will specify the content of the new measures during a press conference Monday.

During the Independence Day celebrations in Tucumán Saturday, Fernández had already announced steps to “gradually lower the fiscal deficit” were coming up. ”I spoke with Silvina and we agreed to meet tomorrow (today, Sunday) and we will see what measures we are going to take first in order to address this issue that worries us a lot.“

He also pointed out that ”there are two issues in the world that have skyrocketed, energy and food“, which, he said, ”is a huge problem“ and ”with Silvina, we are working on that; for me, it is a matter of being able to lower inflation in a scenario that is not favorable for us because the world is not favorable for Argentina in this context.“

Alberto Fernández also called for the union of Argentines against ”powerful people“ who seek to generate ”discouragement“ and promote a ”devaluation“ while spreading ”false“ news.

”History teaches us that unity must be maintained in the most difficult moments. With a divided people a few scoundrels win,“ Fernández stressed.

”Growth requires foreign currency, which today is scarce and makes the accumulation of reserves more difficult,” he also admitted. Batakis' measures are expected to tackle this issue.