The president of the Central Bank of Uruguay (BCU), Diego Labatargued that “the competitiveness of Uruguay is correct” and assured that it is a matter that must be looked at “far beyond the exchange rate”.
Labat’s comments took place within the framework of the XXXVIII Annual Conference on Economics (JAE), which includes two international conferences to address issues of financial innovation and the credit market.
The head of the BCU affirmed that “there are a lot of factors” that directly affect the competitiveness of a country, and that the national government carried out “a series of measures in different areas” in this regard.
“One of the factors that influences competitiveness is the inflation low, which is the one that corresponds to us”, indicated Labat, adding that “the objective is the inflationthe BCU ensures the stability of the national currency”.
Asked about the strength of the Uruguayan peso against the US currency, labat pointed out that “the behavior of the dollar has clearly been one of the factors that have helped the inflation behaves within the range (target)”.
“We have an exchange market where the dollar floats, and we understand that it is the best regime for an open and small country like Uruguay“, because it “helps temper any positive or negative shock we may receive from outside.”
The BCU closely follows the situation of the export sector
Labat commented that the BCU is aware that the price of the dollar affects some sectors of the national economy, but clarified that the objective continues to be to maintain the inflation within the target range established by the agency itself in 2020.
“We have been talking and talking about actions with exporters so that there is a better development of future exchange rate markets, and we believe that there are things to do,” the economist concluded.
Source: Ambito
