After intense negotiations that lasted for several weeks, the Senate finally approved with modifications the Bases law and the fiscal package. In this framework, the economist Carlos Melconian commented on the situation, emphasizing that, if the law has not been approved, “we would be in a mess“.
Melconian commented: “If you ask me if I want to have it (the law), I tell you yes. But if you ask me what it’s for, it’s not at all.. If you ask me if what comes next depends on the law, I tell you categorically no. If taken as a turning point, it can be used as an excuse if the President wants to make any changes.”.
He went on to state: “What comes next does not depend on this. We have to wait for Deputies because there are things in the fiscal area that we have to look at, the rest was liquefied. If this began as a reform of the State, now it has nothing to do with it. The central issue of what we have to talk about economics does not depend on the law.”
Melconian also referred to the figure of Javier Milei, pointing out that he defines himself as a “carom president” and has arrived as an outsider. “He has that record, he is ‘vox populi’ without governors and without parliament,” he stressed in an interview with Radio con Vos.
About RIGI
When referring to Incentive Regime for Large Investments (RIGI), which received a series of modifications in Congress, Melconian commented: “It’s key. If money enters the country that ends up serving, the guy who puts in the money also wins, it is his and he can take it out, how can I be against it?”. Furthermore, he noted that he wants to see how the Government will implement these incentives.
Melconian also criticized the government’s management, calling it “improvised” and full of “management errors.” He indicated that “the 600 articles that were going to modify Argentina died. They went for the Oscar and came back with the ‘chamigo’. If you want to use it as an excuse for rearranging, yes, they have to see where you want to start or if you want to modify these things.”
At another time, he analyzed the first six months of the current government, commenting: “I believe in investment, in profitability, recontra. Afterwards we can talk about the discussions, whether the worst is over, whether we were headed for hyperinflation, whether the top economist congratulated them, or whether they are making the biggest adjustment. How the hell do you check the biggest adjustment of all of humanity?”
Stocks and inflation under the Melconian magnifying glass
He also criticized the President’s statements about the risk of hyperinflation when he took office on December 10, stating: “What do I have in connection with the Government that left? Nothing, it would do the opposite, but saying that we had 15 thousand of inflation? Not with me. We had a cannon brand quilombo, yes.” He highlighted the importance of fiscal balance, which he described as an “extraordinary advance” from a cultural and economic point of view, although he regretted that there are still “many people with their asses in their hands.”
With respect to exchange rate and its possible elimination in the short term, Melconian said that the Government needs to meet several prerequisites: “The stocks have nothing to do with the liabilities of the Central Bank. If you don’t have the liabilities, the better. But the stocks depend on whether you have reserves, your exchange rate, whether you have exports, whether the fiscal surplus is sustainable, the country risk has to be lowered.. When all that happens, one strengthens oneself for the opening of the stocks. There is a checklist to complete.”
Source: Ambito
