The Minister of Economy, Martín Guzmán, affirmed this Wednesday that Argentina registered “a strong economic recovery” last year, although he warned that the most “complex challenge is the inflationary problem, which has intensified with the war” between Russia and Ukraine .
“Argentina has had a strong recovery of economic activity in 2021: GDP grew 10.3%, we reduced unemployment from 13.1% to 7% and investments and exports also grewGuzmán said when participating in Washington in the Forum of Ministers and Presidents of Central Banks of the G20, in advance of the Spring Assembly of the IMF and the World Bank.
In any case, Guzmán warned that the most complex challenge is inflation, particularly since the war between Russia and Ukraine.
“The most complex challenge, consistent with Argentine history, has been the inflationary problem and the context of the war in Ukraine has intensified pressures”said the minister.
In this sense, he stressed that “the war in Ukraine has tremendous consequences on the prices of food, energy and metals, it is a profound alteration of the supply chains.”
“As a global community, we need to find mechanisms to implement policies that allow our societies not to face a very regressive shock, because if we don’t do this, we are going to see lasting consequencesboth at a social level and at a political level,” reflected Guzmán.
three actions
In this context, and in response to a public statement by the head of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, she proposed three actions that policymakers must carry out.
“Kristalina, you asked what we policy makers can do. I am going to refer to three issues on which we can carry out actions both individually in each country and collectively as a global community”, the minister pointed out in response.
First, he highlighted the “importance of deal with the international inflation situation. We have experienced a sequence of complex events globally in the last two years, for example the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.”
“What the world is experiencing today is a distributional crisis. There are sectors of the economy that find themselves with windfall profits as a result of the war and billions of people in the world who suffer the consequences of price increases,” he added.
The second point has to do with debt and what can be done “collectively to alleviate the unsustainable debt situations that the world is going to experience in the coming years”.
And finally, in line with expressions of the Brazilian Economy Minister, Paulo Guedes, he stressed that both nations are working “closer” to make a significant contribution to “global food and energy security”.
Guzmán, among other activities, will meet next Friday with Georgieva to analyze the evolution of Argentine economic variables after the extended facilities agreement signed with the multilateral organization
The minister’s agenda in Washington also includes a series of meetings with representatives of the World Bank, as well as with peers and officials from the economic areas of Germany, Indonesia, Spain, Italy and South Africa, the Treasury Palace reported in a statement.
In addition to the meetings bilateralwill meet with the Director of Operations of the World Bank, Axel Van Trotsenburg, and with the authorities of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad), and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
