The Minister of Economy, Luis Caputotargeted the sectors opposed to the president Javier Mileiwarning that their objective is to “overturn the Government”, and pointed out the head of the Truckers union, Pablo Moyano, when responding to one of the many criticisms that the leader directed at him. “Where I live I earned it, I don’t know if he can say the same.Caputo stated. The truck driver had been ironic about the head of the Treasury, stating that he “lives in a bubble.”
During an interview with the journalist Luis Majulon the news signal LN+, Caputo warned that a part of the opposition – “which we know what it is,” he asserted – aims for Milei’s government to face a crisis that ousts it from power. “It is clear, their objective is to overturn the Government,” said Caputo.
In this framework, he warned that the Bases Law is a tool that would allow the libertarian administration to consolidate the signs of recovery, which, they claim, can already be seen. “I confirm, there are signs of recovery in several sectors. Income, the wage bill and pensions are also being strongly recomposed,” said the minister.
Then he added that “the cement dispatch also turned around. It is something that is going to be recomposed,” and that is why he valued the discussion of the basic law, which will be discussed by the Senate this week. “Everyone knows that the law is good, that’s why they don’t approve it,” he insisted.
The minister advanced the inflation figure they expect for the month of May. “We believe that inflation in May will be below 5%. Not much more than two months ago I was asked if inflation was going to reach single digits in the second half of the year. And it reached single digits in April,” he emphasized.
According to Caputo, the most intransigent opposition will do “the impossible” so that the Bases law is not voted on. Along those lines, he detailed: “What was inherited was dramatic and it was obvious that, with a little noise, you would be gone in two or three months. We went from that risk of hyperinflation to 30-year mortgage loans in five months. And inflation, which was 30-20-20 (in reference to the first three months of administration), is at four-odd levels. And the deficit, which was impossible to lower, was at zero in month one, but it was because ‘Caputo sat on the box’ and it was only January. January February March April May; So now you see it. And if the law passes and the economy turns around, that’s four years. If not, eight, and act accordingly.”
Then, the official reinforced the concept that the ruling party has about this initiative, since “it is for Argentines.” And he added: “I always suspected that they were not going to pass it – due to opposition blockades – that’s why I put together an economic program to combat that. That’s why the fiscal balance in month one. Or the increase in the Country tax to combat this. I also said it was going to be short term. The president has already announced that if the law is approved, we will roll back that increase from 17.5% to 7.5%. The Argentine cost is going to drop sharply.”
Caputo continued with the scenario that occurs in Congress. In that sense, he fired: “The other day, the Chamber of Deputies approved an 80% increase – in reality, it was the decision of the libertarian Martin Menem-, he refused to cut privileged pensions and sent a retirement law to upset the fiscal balance. In the last administration, retirements fell by about 24% and I didn’t listen to anyone. Do you know how the retirements of the people who contributed are going, how are they going to be with us with the increase in June? Three percent up in real terms.”
Regarding other improvements, the minister emphasized that the Universal Child Allowance “rose 335% against an inflation of 129%” -according to the period he referred to- and that the Alimentar Card “is up 4% in real terms.” . In fact, he defended his Human Capital counterpart, Sandra Pettovellogiven that “They shoot him because he is fighting all the mafias”. And he said: “For me, the best way is for there to be one card for everyone and you receive certain subsidies. Over there, the AUH; o Feed more than one other, but all on the same card that we make sure it reaches the person and that they have to spend it from the card so that they do not withdraw cash. That’s important too”.
During another portion of the interview, Caputo was asked about the adjustment in general. There he responded: “The other model was to make people believe that electricity is free, gas is free and everyone pays a fortune because they are stupid. The important thing, so that people understand it, what you charge more is compensated by what you are reducing the inflation tax, which is the most expensive. It is the one who kills the lower class; It doesn’t affect the rich because they can cover themselves; He who does not have it, how can he cover himself?
The minister insisted: “We always said it was going to be hard, we didn’t lie to anyone. To those people, thanks for hanging in there. Now, if you look, the level of hope that Argentina has has turned around. The majority of people understood that this is the way, they no longer eat the story of Kirchnerism and populism. It was a pyramid scam, I print money and give it away. If it were reasonable, it would apply in many other places in the world. Why is it not applied anywhere? Look how we finished. It’s factual, we can’t argue with this. The fan discusses it”.
On the other hand, Caputo differentiated the political movement from Congress and its relationship with the last days of the market, which “has nothing to do with the economy” because it has “a fiscal, commercial, current account surplus, monetary squeeze.” “We cannot be more solid,” he added, although he observed the issue of growth.
Regarding this last point, the official reported that “the turning point has already been made” by the economy and that “in part, now it will be due to the recomposition of income, which has been occurring.” He did admit that “investments naturally take a long time to come, in a country with volatility like Argentina, and that is why they want to see the political reactions.”
Faced with the increasingly insistent question about the stocks, the minister pointed out: “We do not set a date because we do not have a crystal ball. What we set for ourselves is a strategy, a goal to get out.” Afterwards, he considered that “four conditions must be met: fiscal balance, having solved the problem of inherited stock, having solved the flow and, finally, a reasonable relationship between reserves and remunerated liabilities.” Following this, he highlighted that “the balance is met, we have solved the stock and flow by 75%; “Where we are still far away is in the stock of reserves on paid liabilities.”.
“We don’t get caught, the most important thing is not to use batons, we are sure that we are not going to cause a problem for people. To think that it could be exited in December is to not understand anything about the stock structure: there were at least 20,000 million dollars in pesos to buy dollars insensitive to price. It would have been a disaster”, he reflected.
Regarding the ending, Caputo said: “Economists with a market profile are much more orthodox. We don’t like risk, that’s why we always like fiscal and monetary discipline; So, since we’re at it, I don’t feel uncomfortable. For there to be mess, the first condition is that it has to make macro disorder”. “The pity about this is that it is violated by politics, things were calm again”, he added.
