“Society needs concrete answers. For example, reducing inflation, lowering one point per two months. Lowering and stabilizing, to reach December 2023 below 3 points. That is my greatest challenge and responsibility,” he said.
About his possible candidacy at the IDB
Massa also ruled out the possibility of being president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and pointed out: “I have enough with the work I have here to close the year.”
“My main obligation for 2023 is to lower inflation to 3 percent and not think about my candidacy. I have to be out of the daily political issue due to the level of problems that Argentina has and that does not allow me to be distracted for a second. It is my political conviction,” said the head of the Palacio de Hacienda, in statements to the Todo Noticias (TN) channel.
In that aspect, he hinted at a commitment to his children and slipped that he has “a family approach about how much longer you can be exposed, subject to being targeted with what you do, what you say,” he assured.
According to the Bloomberg agency, Massa was put as president of the IDB from the United States, but that situation was ruled out by the minister.
“I did not have one but several meetings and the issue of the role of the IDB in the region is a topic that appeared in the talk, but with the role of Argentina in that bank. It puts us in a position to have preponderance in decision-making, to have a regional program in Latin America. And what Bloomberg tells is that in those talks there were plans around the profile that Argentina should present,” explained Massa.
The state of the economy
“When I took office we were facing a crisis and a series of decisions had to be made that encompassed various sectors of the state’s operations, and that is a lot of work.”
Massa revealed that when he took office they received the portfolio “with a fiscal deficit of 12.4 percent” and admitted that “the situation is still critical.”
“I’m not talking about inheritance because I don’t look back and it is received without benefit of inventory. People are tired of us blaming the one who was there before. We have to provide solutions,” he said.
Likewise, Massa affirmed that they began “to stabilize the situation”, although he revealed that “it is still not a comfortable situation and it continues to be critical”. “That requires that we continue to make an effort from the State. That is why in some areas we ask for austerity,” she added.
Decision making
In another order, he denied that he agrees on decisions with the national president, Alberto Fernández, or with the vice president, Cristina Kirchner and specified: “I make decisions when I am convinced to do so. It is not the task of a minister to allow an assembly state. Of course, I have the chance from week to week to chat about the course, the problems, with the president and with the vice president.
In relation to the political crosses between Fernández and Cristina Kirchner, he evaluated: “What there is is a public debate on what the pandemic meant, the agreement with the IMF, what our fight to recover income means and what is the challenge for 2023 “.
Massa also maintained that the Argentines were not aware that “the war cost us 5,000 million dollars in loss of reserves.”
Workers Bonus
Regarding the possibility of granting a bonus to workers, Massa explained that they will say if there is such a benefit when they have “a decision made”, although he clarified that “the idea is to reinforce the salary throughout 2023”.
In addition, he stressed that there are currently “810,000 workers paying profits, from the rise in the minimum taxable income, which rose to 330,000 pesos.”
“The underlying discussion has nothing to do with year-end bonuses. There are very low-income sectors” and added that “60% of wage earners of less than 120,000 pesos are municipal employees.”
“We will say if there will be a bonus when we have the decision made,” he emphasized.
Dollar
On the other hand, he questioned the opposition for pointing out that the Central Bank’s dollar reserves would soon run out.
“They said that we had reserves for six days, after we ran out of them in August, after the amount of dollars reached September. We are going to have net reserves above 6,000 million at the end of the year,” he said.
In another part of the interview, Massa pointed out “The war cost us 5 billion dollars. There are still energy imports from Bolivia that have to be paid off. We are going to close the year with a greater accumulation of reserves than we have today” and listed the measures that are being taken: “We accommodated the import regime, we made the decision to apply a mechanism called fiscal devaluations to the use of dollars, it aims to establish what the priorities are.”
“Dollars for production are a priority and dollars that are linked to investment are fundamental.”
“Dollars will not be lacking,” the minister asserted.
price agreement
The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, confirmed this Wednesday the launch of “Fair Prices”, a program in which companies that represent 86% of mass consumption in Argentina will participate and which was developed jointly between the Government and the sector private.
Massa anticipated that “Fair Prices” will be launched next Friday, which will seek to put a stop to the pressing inflation that afflicts the pockets of Argentine workers and explained that the program was worked on with the entire value chain and that most of the large supermarkets.
“We want people to go to the supermarket and have the same prices for 4 months.” “The sanctions range from 5 to 240 million pesos. There are supermarket chains that decided to compete strongly with this fair price scheme with their own brands.” and announced that “in the fair price program there will be first and second brands.”
STEP
“The PASOs are 50 billion pesos.” “Eliminating the PASOs was already being considered in 2019 and I agreed.” “I want the elimination of the PASOs to be part of the debate. The Government is not focused on the candidacies. One sees the majority of the opposition leaders killing each other to see who is positioned as a candidate. We have the responsibility to govern”.
Measurements for the field
Minister Sergio Massa also did not give deep definitions about a possible new exchange rate to achieve a greater accumulation of reserves. “We have a situation of drought in one sector and a situation of frost in another sector.” “We postponed shipments for a year. No collector or grain company can execute the contract of a producer who did not comply with production because the drought harmed him. “We are financing 40% of what is surfaces of up to 400 hectares of what is seeds and fertilizers.” ‘We are going to have a higher result of foreign currency liquidation by international price”.
Nestor Kirchner gas pipeline
“The Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline represents 2.7 billion dollars less in gas imports. The Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline will be finished in June 2023. Once a week, once every 15 days, to call the two presidents of the companies that are going ahead that historical work for Argentina, which are Techint and SACDE to see if they need anything”, concluded the minister.
Source: Ambito
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