Carlos Melconian He questioned one of the pillars of the economic plan of the government of the government of Javier Milei: The exchange scheme. With a critical tone but without alarmism, the former president of Banco Nación warned that the exchange rate Current “is not really floating” and that the Argentine economy is becoming “unusually expensive in dollars”a phenomenon that, he said, is unsustainable over time.
“The dollar has a problem, without hysteria or tragedy, but you have to know how to handle it,” said the economist in television statements. And, with a metaphor to describe the situation, he compared the economic team with a Formula 1 pilot: “Do you know how to handle those who go 300 kilometers per hour? Yes. But you can still go to the bench.”
Argentina face in dollars: an imbalance symptom
One of the points that generates the most concern, according to Melconian, is the increase in goods and services measured in dollars. “Argentina is the second country that sends the most tourists to the Dominican Republic. The Boca Bar went to Miami. The hairdresser in dollars is expensive”ironized to illustrate the phenomenon of distorted prices in foreign currency.
For the economist, this situation reflects a exchange rate backwardness, although he avoided using that term for political reasons. “Saying ‘delay’ is like putting the finger to which he is governing,” he launched, but remarked that the country “cannot go from being cheap for neighbors to Caro in just a year and a half.”
The ghost of the dollar at $ 2,000
Melconian compared the current situation with the beginnings of Kirchnerism. He recalled that Nestor Kirchner assumed with an exchange rate equivalent to “$ 2,000 today” and that, with that dollar, “we would be Gardel”. Instead, the current government started “with $ 3,000 or more” and, in his opinion, “his hand was ahead of time.”
“The value of the dollar today is not necessarily floating or free. If this ran a little up, it would be better,” he suggested, in an implicit recommendation to adjust the exchange rate to correct the imbalances.
The social cost of the model: low consumption and weakened salaries
Beyond the dollar, Melconian also referred to the impact that the current economic scheme is having on consumption and purchasing power. “What linked to the purchasing power, informality, the public sector and the retirees see it badly,” he said. And warned by a brake on consumer credit: “You can enter a lethargy because the amounts already borrowed begin to grow and an incipient delinquency appears.”
He also criticized the official argument that argues that dollars in dollars are competitive in the region: “To say that retirees in dollars are the ones who earn the most in Latin America there are confidence. Not because it is a lie, but because they eat here in pesos. They do not say it anymore, they go against the people below.”
Record labor informality and structural challenges
Finally, the former official warned of the growth of informal employment. “There were never as many informal workers as now. You reactivate that with growth and activity. The informal depends on the macro,” he explained.
Melconian made it clear that, beyond the government’s tax achievements, the Argentine economy faces a fundamental evidence. “It’s like asking if you studied for the test and you say yes, but they still didn’t take it. You’ll have to give the test,” he graph.
Far from the catastrophist tone, Melconian did not talk about an imminent exchange rate or collapse. But he said that the current economic program faces key challenges, especially in its exchange forehead and in the social effects that already feel strongly. His criticism calls one of the main postulates of the Milei Plan: that the exchange market can be regulated alone.
Source: Ambito
