“I’m closer to Boca’s barrabrava than to the academy,” he said. Silvina Batakis, minutes after being presented and receiving applause as a welcome from his new cabinet colleagues. She in her first appearance with her peers after taking office after the resignation of Martin Guzman (an academic from Columbia University), the minister drew a crude panorama of the economy and anticipated that prepare measures to obtain foreign exchangeessential to combat galloping inflation and the shortage of dollars to assume external commitments.
“The measures point to a differentiated exchange rate”said for his part the Minister of Tourism, Matías Lammensin the press conference that followed the cabinet meeting, which lasted almost two hours and in which only the Minister of Productive Development was absent, Daniel ScioliThe chancellor santiago cafiero (both abroad) and the Minister of the Interior, Edward of Peterwho is going through his recovery from Covid.
For her part, the spokesperson Gabriela Cerruti confirmed that tomorrow at 9 o’clock Batakis will meet with his economic cabinet, in which this differentiated exchange rate for tourists and other measures still under study could be defined. “We empathize with what people feel, but the blue dollar has no impact on the economy,” Cerruti said. He did not want to confirm if the president Alberto Fernandez He will ask his North American counterpart Joe Biden to reformulate the agreement with the IMF, but he did affirm that “when the agreement was reached there was no war.”
Before the currency gap that separates the official dollar of the blue dollarand despite the fact that the Government understands that the current value is competitive, at the press conference this morning after the Cabinet meeting, the minister lambs announced that the administration Fernández analyze apply a differential dollar for touristsin order to encourage exchange your currency at the Central Bank and not in the informal market.
“We need the dollars to come in [al Banco Central]. We aim for a differentiated change for touristswho can settle their dollars in the formal market through a credit card or other means access to a differentiated exchange rate get closer to the dollar Electronic Payment Market (MEP) o counted with liquidation (CCL)”, he detailed.
Waiting for the announcements that would arrive tomorrow after the meeting of the economic team, led by BatakisLammens added that Argentina “needs tourist dollars” and explained the background of that decision that they analyze: “Because of the gap, many of those dollars do not enter the Central Bank. We are working with alternatives for tourists to liquidate dollars inside the Central Bank, to enter the formal foreign exchange market”.
And in that sense, he specified: “The gap makes the tourist who arrives go to the informal market, we need to strengthen the reserves of the Central Bank, tourism is one of the main generators of foreign currency”.
Convinced that a “great job during the pandemic” to keep Argentina with a level of tourist demand, the minister highlighted the numbers in his area and said that they no longer represent a “reactivation”, but imply a 15% growth.
They also discussed at the meeting Gabriel Katopodis (Public Works), which reviewed the past and present works, Carla Vizzotti (Health) and the head of the Advisory Council, John Manuel Olmoswho reviewed the advances in the process of segmentation of public service rates, today in the general registration stage.
For his part, Batakis will receive this afternoon from 3:00 p.m. at the Palacio de Hacienda a group of mayors from the Buenos Aires PJ, including Alberto Barefoot (Ituzaingó), Andres Watson (Florence Varela) and Fernando Espinoza (The slaughter). The head of the Buenos Aires Cabinet will also be part of the party, Martin Insaurraldeand the national deputy for Entre Ríos Marcelo Casaretto.