The Minister of Economy, Martin Guzmanassured this Wednesday that his work agenda is focused on “managing economic policy to improve the quality of life” of the people and that, for this, it is necessary “to combine a fiscal policy that continues underpinning this strong recovery” with a dynamic of accumulation of reserves in the Central Bank.
In this sense, he said that in the last few days a “strengthening dynamic of stability conditions” has been observed, starting with the purchase of almost US $ 1,000 million for reserves in the last three dayswhich was added to a “very positive” auction of Treasury instruments this Tuesday, in which all maturities were refinanced and a positive 2% net financing was achieved.
“The dynamic we see today is a dynamic of trend of strengthening of stability conditionswith a country that accumulates more reserves, strengthening its financing possibilities and that is the path that will allow dealing with the situation of the exchange rate gap, deal with the different macroeconomic imbalances that were generated in Argentina when brutal, unsustainable indebtedness was taken in foreign currency without increasing the productive capacity of the country”, assured this Wednesday Guzmán during a press conference at the Casa Rosada with the governor of Santa Fe, Omar Perotti.
“A country that accumulates more reserves, strengthening its financing possibilities is the path that will allow it to deal with the exchange gap situationwith the different macroeconomic imbalances that were generated in Argentina when brutal, unsustainable debts were taken in foreign currency,” said Guzmán.
“The dynamics that we see today is a trend dynamics of strengthening the conditions of stability, with a country that accumulates more reserves, strengthening its financing possibilities and that is the way that will allow dealing with the exchange rate gap situation.”Martin Guzman
In this regard, he stressed that “in just three days more than 900 million international reserves“, and that he hopes “that in the coming weeks this process will continue along the path we projected.”
To shore up economic recovery, he said, “Argentina needs to reduce the primary fiscal deficit.”
“Needed combine a fiscal policy that continues to underpin this strong recovery and allows the State to finance which is essential for economic development at the same time that the State is strengthened by ordering its public accounts,” he said.
To achieve this objective, he remarked, the DNU was published that updated the budget of the national public sector “to give a character of greater consistency to the macroeconomic policy”, while readjusting the monetary policy, the structure of interest rates and modified the foreign trade management policy.
On this last point, he acknowledged that “whenever a measure of this type is taken, there is an immediate reaction of the markets that goes in one direction and a reaction of the reserves that goes in another until later it settles down.”
“We hope that tomorrow and the next few weeks this process will continue along the path we projected. It is a path in which Argentina is becoming stronger from the greater accumulation of reserves,” said the head of the Treasury Palace.
Asked about the versions of a possible replacement as minister, Guzmán assured: “My agenda is to dedicate myself to managing economic policy to improve the quality of life” of Argentine men and women, and I work with the President day by day to be able to achieve that our people live better”.
Guzmán, after the measures on imports: “The reactions of the markets were as expected”
Guzmán assured this Wednesday that “Market reactions were as expected”after the changes implemented by the Central Bank in the foreign trade payment system.
Guzmán, in the framework of a press conference given at the Government House after announcing an agreement on the debt that the Nation maintains with the province of Santa Fe, valued the measures taken by indicating that, as a result of them, “We accumulated more than US$900 million of international reserves in three days, with more than US$580 million today“.
“Argentina has been experiencing general economic growth and in order to give it continuity and build the anchors to attack the problem of inflation, it is necessary to strengthen the accumulation of reserves. In the context of external events that were disruptive, what we did was carry out macroeconomic actions that aim to strengthen reserves and allow Argentina to grow for three consecutive years,” said the minister.
In his speech, Guzmán indicated that “foreign trade adaptation policies” are being carried out, that for SMEs that imported no more than US$1 million in 2021 “the conditions of access to foreign currency were made more flexible”, which can now access a value of up to 115% of what was imported last year against the 105% previously allowed.
“At the same time, imports of luxury goods or those that had non-automatic licenses began to have the same scheme as the rest of the imports, with the aim of strengthening international reserves,” the Minister continued explaining.
To conclude, the economist from La Plata indicated that “as a result of the measures, we accumulated more than US$900 million in international reserves in three days, with more than US$580 million today. We hope that this process will continue.” on the path that we projected, which is that of one of Argentina becoming stronger from the accumulation of reserves”.
Lastly, he estimated that exports of goods this year will reach almost “90 billion dollars”, not only due to price increases but also volumes.
