Argentina’s new economy minister sought yesterday to paint a reassuring picture of the country’s economic programme to a sceptical audience anxious to learn about her approach to the country’s unresolved economic problems.
Addressing her first international meeting outside Argentina in her new role, Felisa Miceli, who called her approach one of “sustained growth and social justice”, drew attention to the strong statistics: over 40 months of GDP growth totaling 36%, substantial fiscal surpluses, a stable and competitive exchange rate, high international reserves and steadily improving employment and poverty indicators.
But analysts remained unconvinced that her talk addressed the underlying concerns over the country’s investment deficit. As John Welch, Lehman Brothers chief Latin American economist, pointed out, her figures all take 2002 as the point of departure. “With that as the starting point, you’ve stacked the deck,” he said.
Miceli also avoided talk of the on-going conflict-ridden contract renegotiations with a wide range of public utility firms. She also reaffirmed that the government will not revisit last year’s foreign debt swap to resolve the issue of $20 billion in holdouts, citing legal prohibitions to do so.
But, as one businessman put it, the international economic climate is being unusually kind to Miceli and her government. “Nine percent growth hides a lot of sins,” he said. Although Miceli enjoys a close relationship with president Nestor Kirchner, her position in the president’s closest circle of intimates is constantly being challenged. Only this week she had to accept the resignation of the president of the Banco de la Nacion, Ricardo Lospinnato, her successor at the institution and an appointment she herself made.
Lospinnato is said to have tangled with Gabriela Ciganotto, a close confidant of senator Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the president’s wife. Ciganotto, an accountant from Patagonia, was confirmed as the new president of Banco de la Nacion, one of the country’s most important financial institutions, on Friday night.