Finance Secretary Pablo Quirno insisted that the government will strictly maintain the fiscal health of the state, while acknowledging that the economic plan still lacks credibility.
Speaking at the 2024 Colloquium of the Center for Research on Insurance Development (CIDeS), Quirno told the businessmen present that “They have to convince themselves that fiscal balance is here to stay.”
The official expressed these ideas after it was revealed that last month the Government had a financial deficit of about $600 billion, something that the market expected due to the increase in spending in the second half of the year combined with a drop in tax collection.
The Finance Secretary again asked economic operators for confidence, given that a reduction in the country’s tax from 17.5% to 7.5% is imminent, which will probably cost between $200 billion and $300 billion a month in revenue.
Quirno admitted that the economic plan does not have full credibility, something that he believes is due to the recent history of failures. “The word of the policy maker in Argentina is devalued,” he said.
But he recalled that when Javier Milei came to power with the promise of ending the fiscal deficit, the public was distrustful of the results. “We announced that we were going to achieve fiscal balance and people said ‘let’s see’,” he said.
How the August numbers come
“In February we reached equilibrium, and then came March, April and May. Nothing we do will put equilibrium at risk.”he added. Quirno also stated that between the expectations of private analysts and reality “there are 50 points of inflation” with which multiple models can be built. The official admitted that “we have a delay between the credibility of the word and the facts.”
According to private data accessed by Ámbito, fiscal conditions in August would not be very different from those in July, when the Government had to report a primary deficit of about $900 billion and a financial deficit of about $600 billion.
As of August 21, the main taxes that contribute to revenue sharing, such as VAT, had a real drop of 7% while the Income Tax registered a decrease of 17%.
Source: Ambito
