From his point of view, when the dollar reached $230, “I was very afraid that there would be no program with the Fund, that things would disband and that inflation would escape.”
Since the national Congress approved the program of extended facilities with the IMF more than a week ago, its price “dropped a little to $200 and interest rates also rose a lot,” a movement that “tends to stabilize the dollar,” he explained.
However, for Kiguel, the dollar will not fall below the ideal, which he stated is $120 or $130, because different factors indicate that “it will continue to move more or less in line with inflation.”
Regarding inflation levels, the also Doctor of Philosophy from Columbia University considered that for the current period he observes “between 59% and 60%”.
“It has to do with a very difficult beginning of the year, March shows more than 5%, February was 4.7% and April will surely be high. And that there was no increase in rates,” he said.
The panorama “is difficult”, he affirmed, and, in addition, “The government does not have an anti-inflationary plan, it does sporadic things.”
“Throughout the world, the person responsible for inflation is the Central Bank and in Argentina it is thought that the person responsible is the Secretary of Commerce. You have to think that inflation is a monetary problem and the BCRA has to play a central role. It seems that for the Central Bank, inflation is for other things and is not at the center of the fight,” he criticized.
Asked regarding the understanding reached by the Executive with the Fund, he indicated that it was a “very very light and almost unrecognizable agreement” by the international organization and asserted that he “never” saw one of these characteristics.
“As it is a light agreement, not much improvement can be expected because the only thing the agreement achieves is to ensure that the economy does not worsen, which is not a minor issue and that is very positive,” he declared.
The agreement should help improve the country’s economic conditions, although since its approval both in parliament and in the IMF board “things have happened” on a global level, such as the increase in the value of gas, the 4.7% inflation in February and “the accumulation of reserves is slow,” he listed.
“It continues to be a very challenging country for this year and next year. We must add an important political problem, more than the inflation war, it seems like the internal war that exists within the government. That creates a governance problem that I think is serious right now.”evaluated in dialogue with Radio Milenium.
