In that sense, Milei highlighted five points that he believes are key to achieving this status. He pointed to the “financial surplus in the Treasury, the constant monetary base, the almost zero gap, with the purchase of net reserves, cleanup of the Central Bank’s balance sheet, lifting of restrictions in the exchange market every day until one day it ends. of the stocks”.
“Therefore,” he continued, “are we facing a case of exchange rate appreciation or a case of rearrangement of relative prices where Argentina is expensive in dollars given its fiscal and regulatory structure?” Along these lines, the economist Federico Furiase, one of the main advisors of the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, came to the bench. “Clear what the President sets,” he wrote in The collapse of the gap, country risk and inflation reflect that consistency.
This public presentation by President Milei clearly responds to the pressure from economic sectors to update the dollar, something that sparked internal disputes in the Government. The agricultural sector is one of the most interested in there being an exchange rate correction, and is putting pressure on it by slowing down the liquidation of the soybean harvest. Today, only 15 percent of the beans were raised and the expectation of dollar inflows fell greatly: sources in the sector told this newspaper that from January to April 8.5 billion dollars were expected and today they are 2 billion below that number. Even compared to a last year where the drought complicated the income of foreign currency. For this reason, at some point he thought about recreating a new soy dollar, as former minister Sergio Massa did, a situation that was discarded due to requiring a greater issuance of pesos to compensate for the policy. Today, Caputo decided to make some kind of consultation rounds with the Liaison Table to give him information on when fresh dollars could arrive in volume.
This presentation by the president, warning that he does not want to devalue, received an immediate response from economists in the same league as Milei and his former partners.
The liberals lambasted him
Carlos Rodríguez, Carlos Menem’s former official in the Treasury and one of those who were Milei’s advisors and then broke spears, was one of the first to criticize the president’s reading. “The President has mentioned 5 reasons why he believes that the low Exchange Rate is here to stay. I see that these reasons are supported by temporary measures that SHOULD NOT BE HERE TO STAY: More taxes, liquefaction of income, temporary suspension of public works , debt castling, payment postponement… In addition, I see many announcements of micro adjustment measures, which are welcome but I do not think they justify an adjustment in the TRealdeC of the magnitude that we are seeing. I do not know if the full adjustment of rates and. “openness will be sustainable without a counterpart in labor deregulation and lower taxes,” said the economist, one of the founders of the liberal CEMA group. His public expression infected the rest.
Similar criticisms were made by two characters who also knew how to be very close to Milei. Liberal economist Roberto Cachanosky explained that “if there is exchange rate appreciation, it means that the peso is increasingly stronger and the dollar weaker against the peso. Why don’t they lift the exchange rate in the face of this scenario of an “attack” of confidence in the weight? Because they know that this appreciation is artificial. While Carlos Maslatón added that “that is because they know that the current price is fake and they do not dare to release anything. They are communists.”
In turn, Héctor Torres, former Argentine representative to the IMF and a figure who supported the libertarian in the presidential campaign, responded to Carlos Rodríguez’s tweet and contributed that “all the reasons the president argues come face to face with incontrovertible reality.” “Argentines cross borders to shop.”
For his part, Diego Giacomini, who wrote books with Milei and is also a critic today, asserted that “macro analysis was never his strong suit, since he never lived from it, nor did he: 1. it is not genuine or permanent 2 “It is not true 3. the liabilities increase more than the reserves 4. the tail is watched and there is no encouragement to open the traps.” And he added that the stocks issue is because his program does not have sufficient credibility and reputation. If he had it, inflation would fall much faster and stronger, and he could also open the stocks.”
