The Argentine government has passed a law that provides for a series of emergency economic and tax measures aimed at reforming the economy in a country with “hypothetical default” and mired in a crisis similar to the one that occurred in 2001, said new President Alberto Fernandez.
According to the “French”, the law was published in the Official Gazette after it was voted on by Parliament last Saturday. The Economic Emergency Law provides, among other things, for increased taxes on the middle and upper classes, granting social assistance to the poorest, and imposing a 30 per cent fee on foreign currency purchases in a country that many of its residents are used to saving in dollars to counter the depreciation and inflation.
It also requires increasing fees on agricultural exports, while the food industry has been the only sector to have progressed in recent years.
Alejandro Fanuli, the director of the Social Security Authority, said that through this law the government hopes to “meet the needs of the most vulnerable sectors and focus its efforts to revive demand and stimulate growth.” This body is charged with social security, retirement and assistance to the poorest.
The law includes a “plan to combat hunger”, grant bonuses to the poorest and poorest pensioners, and defer or freeze the increase in public service fees. Former president Mauricio Macri (center right) left the country in a recession and inflation. The value of the Argentine peso has fallen 70% since January 2018.
Macri asked at the end of last August to reschedule the debt, especially from the International Monetary Fund, which in October 2018 awarded Buenos Aires a loan of $ 57 billion – of which it received 44 billion – in exchange for austerity program.
Latin America’s third largest economy saw a 3.1 percent decline in gross domestic product in 2019 and a 55 percent rise in prices, one of the highest in the world. The country’s public debt is about $ 330 billion, including the $ 44 billion it recently received, 90 percent of gross domestic product. The debt was 20 per cent of gross domestic product when Macri took office.
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