MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Superminister Massa says unemployment in Argentina is 6.7%

Macroeconomic stability derives from joint work between the State and private investors, Massa explained

Argentina's Economy Minister Sergio Massa said Thursday during an event at the Council of the Americas that unemployment had fallen to 6.7%. He added that his country had an enormous amount of resources, but it was not rich, although it was full of rich people.

He added that transforming that wealth into development and growth somehow depends “on the work that each one of us does from the State and the private sector.” He also pointed out that “without macroeconomic stability, there is no social peace, but without social peace, there is no macroeconomic stability.”

“Tensions are reflected in the decisions that the State and the private sector must make when it comes to investing,” the Superminister added. He has been dubbed so since he has also merged Agriculture and Production into one office.

Macroeconomic stability “is a joint work between the State, the rulers, but also with the economic and social actors of Argentina,” Massa highlighted.

He also spoke of “unexpected” unemployment levels reaching 6.7% as “consumption in some regions of the country and of production and increase of installed capacity that reach levels that two years ago in the middle of the pandemic we could not have imagined.”

Also participating at the event were Buenos Aires Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and Washington's Ambassador to Buenos Aires, Marc Stanley, who insisted on his country's willingness to help Argentina out of its plight. “We want to help the world and partner with you,” he said.

“The United States wants to have a relationship with Argentina to be a leader in Latin America,” Stanley explained. He added his country would seek to make agreements to “develop infrastructure, food, energy, and lithium.” The diplomat also pointed out that there were “300 US companies working in Argentina today.”

He then urged local political forces to “make a coalition now and not wait for the 2023 elections,” so that the country can seize the opportunity that the war between Ukraine and Russia represents.

Argentina's Ambassador to Washington Jorge Argüello underlined the importance of state policies that go beyond each administration. He also said the meeting between Presidents Alberto Fernández and Joseph Biden would take place in September after being postponed when the US leader tested positive for COVID-19.

Argüello also explained he and Fernández would hold a business workshop in Houston, Texas, later this year to assure would-be investors that they can rely on Argentina. “The United States is Argentina's oldest investor and the third largest trading partner, behind Brazil and China. We must multiply this condition, we cannot be only 0.2% of US imports.”

The potential of Vaca Muerta, mining, and lithium in Argentina were also highlighted during the event.

But Argüello made the headlines in Buenos Aires for his Freudian slip when he referred to Massa as “president.”

The Council of the Americas is a US business organization founded in the 1960s by David Rockefeller to promote free trade, democracy, and open markets. Since the early 2000s, it has been working with international forums to link investments in countries such as Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America.