2023-10-11 07:52:39
The Argentine presidential elections will be held on October 22. Each previous day begins to be felt like a visit to the abyss, pushed by the brutal rise in the price of the dollar and the increasingly evident risk of hyperinflation. The exchange rate run this Tuesday was encouraged by the far-right candidate, Javier Milei, who said that the peso, the local currency, has the value of one “excrement“Savers desperately went to the banks to withdraw their savings and spend them to the North American currency that, in a few days, went from 730 pesos per unit to breaking the barrier of 1,000 pesos. The effect on the pockets of men and women on foot was immediate: everything became more expensive in a spiraling manner. Some businesses closed because they considered that they lacked a reference price. For Milei, first in the polls, the more the currency depreciates, the easier it will be to dollarize the economy of this country. Carlos Pagni, one of the most widely read analysts, described pyromaniac to the La Libertad Avanza candidate.
Sergio Massa, who is Minister of Economy and, in addition, a presidential candidate for Peronism, in power, assured when the dollar was jumping through the air that he will ensure that “the four or five living ones (crooks) who speculate with savings of the people” go to jail. “I can win or lose an election, that is secondary, but rest assured that here on December 10th I am going to take care of seeing those four or five rogues in jail (in prison). And I tell you so that later we don’t start saying that the market and freedoms are attacked; Until I see them arrested, I won’t stop.” Massa is second in the polls. However, analysts estimate that the exchange disaster will leave him on the road. Not in vain, the Buenos Aires governor, Axel Kicillof, accused Milei of “encourage market coup.”
Banks request
The note for this Black Tuesday was given by the associations that represent Argentine banking, thinking about the risks of the coming days. Without naming the far-right, they asked the presidential candidates to “be responsible in your public statements“and avoid expressions that generate “uncertainty and volatility” in the financial variables. “The candidates They have to show responsibility in their campaigns“. In that sense, the banks stated that applicants “should avoid” saying “unfounded” things that generate uncertainty in people. ”
Milei’s expressions already have a first criminal complaint. The Federal Chamber of the City of Buenos Aires received a complaint against him to open an investigation for “incitement to economic violence or financial crime”.
Bullrich attacks the Government and Milei
Patricia Bullrich, the third candidate in contention, ahead of October 22, below Milei and Massa, questioned her rivals in harsh terms this Tuesday. “We are on the edge of the precipice” he said. “We saw it coming. The only thing Massa does is deepen the crisis. He speculated that this would happen after October 22. As a political force, we do not want to fall off the cliff and that is why we cut off the campaign and are here. We also warn people that on the other hand there is Milei who calls for dollarization because she wants to fulfill his idea, even if 46 million Argentines lose wages.”
For Julián Guarino, columnist for the newspaper ‘Ámbito Financiero’, if the extreme right’s dollarization project were to come to fruition, these days it has been shown at what cost. Milei, he added, is “Libertarian in soul, but arsonist by profession“. In the last few hours “he has decided to string together a bunch of semantic trotyl (TNT) bars to propel himself to the Casa Rosada.”
The exchange crisis has another background: the weakness of the Central Bank, which in October had to sell 468 million dollars in the market due to strong demand from savers. So far this year it has shed $2.2 billion. Gross reserves in the Central Bank are currently at 27 billion.
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