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Macri favors Mercosur single currency

Tuesday, December 12th 2023 - 10:59 UTC
Full article 14 comments
Dollarization has not been too good for Ecuador, Macri argued. A Mercosur currency would be better Dollarization has not been too good for Ecuador, Macri argued. A Mercosur currency would be better

Former Argentine President Mauricio Macri said in Brazil he supported the idea of a single currency for all Mercosur countries because if the bloc was “serious” it needed “the same rules and the same currency, like the eurozone.”

“We have to move towards a monetary unification with Brazil. The single currency would strengthen Argentina more initially, but both countries in the long term,” said Macri during an economic forum in Sao Paulo.

“Commercial currency unification makes sense with fiscal adjustment,” said the man who ruled Argentina between 2015 and 2019 and who now seems to have returned to power after supporting Javier Milei against Sergio Massa at the Nov. 19 runoff.

Macri also argued that a single Mercosur currency could be even more beneficial than the dollarization proposed by President Milei.

“I understand the symbolic advantages of dollarization, but Ecuador has gone back into fiscal deficit,” Macri argued.

Regarding Milei's speech upon taking office on Sunday, Macri said it was “perfect, especially from a liberal point of view.”

“The ideas he defends are the ones I've always defended,” he added.

“Milei can't spend more than he takes in and that's what he's going to do in the next 90 days, and there's public acceptance for that. He said it yesterday, and everybody present applauded. The average Argentinian has realized that the story that the state solves everything is a lie,” Macri also explained.

Last January, Lula and former Argentine president Alberto Fernández discussed creating a common currency for transactions within Mercosur. Macri also raised the possibility in 2019, when Jair Bolsonaro was at the Planalto Palace, but encountered tough opposition from Brazil's Central Bank.

Top Comments

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  • imoyaro

    Another really bad idea.

    Dec 12th, 2023 - 09:02 pm +1
  • Brasileiro

    Juan,

    Celts, Vikings, Angles, Saxons, Normans, Britons, that's what Britain was like a thousand years ago.

    So, Alfred of Wessex (if I remember correctly) had a dream of unity for the entire Island. First England was united under a single crown, then came Wales, and finally in the 18th century, Scotland.

    Perhaps this short story will serve as a lesson and will help us learn once and for all that humanity is made of dreams.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kywZr35ZYKo

    Dec 14th, 2023 - 09:37 am +1
  • Juan Cervantes

    Problem is Bras, that is a fantasy not a dream. it will never happen, a vast continent being compared to a small island is hardly comparable is it, France will never give up French Guiana, Suriname will never want to be controlled by Spanish speaking countries, Brasil and Argentina will never be one, nothing wrong with closer cooperation but a super state is pure fantasy, me thinks you want a Soviet Union version of South America. how did that turn out,

    Dec 14th, 2023 - 10:32 am +1
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