The Confederation of Business Chambers of Uruguay (CCE) He held his assembly this Wednesday where he expressed his concern about the exchange delay and announced part of the content of the proposals that he will deliver to the presidential candidates. In addition, the meeting welcomed the executive director of Uruguay Innovation Hub, Sabrina Sauksteliskiswho presented the work of the platform to the partners.
The president of the Confederation of Business Chambers, Diego O’Neilllocated the current exchange rate delay as one of the most important problems and demanded that the authorities of the government’s economic team implement some type of actions.
“Obviously there is a positive assessment of the drop in the inflation. We applaud, we value, and we understand that it is a path that must be followed. But undoubtedly the issue of exchange delay It is something that worries a lot,” he said. “He central bank It has a policy of not intervening in the market, which has its foundations. But we also understand that when there are distortions that, based on the information we have, is what has been happening in recent weeks, that they have entered speculative capital from abroad that are converted into pesos to make their placements, having an impact on the exchange rate. At least in the face of these things there should be action,” he added.
“The production system is very hard hit by the exchange rate and it is something that worries us a lot. This situation should at least be considered because if not, it is always the productive sector that faces collateral damage,” continued the leader of the construction industry. “He fiscal deficit is also behind the exchange delay. Uruguay has to move towards a fiscal deficit still below what is being achieved, which is below what the country’s average growth is. Last year it grew by 0.4 and we have a fiscal deficit of 3.2, the debt undoubtedly increased and that also causes the exchange rate to fall. But today, for now, it seems to us that the situation in the exchange market should be addressed,” he stressed.
O’Neill recalled that “he himself BCU until a few weeks ago he was talking about 15% of exchange delaythat is undoubtedly something that sticks in the competitiveness and in the cost effectiveness of the exporting sectors, of the investors in real estatein all areas of the productive sector.”
He already told this medium that in the coming days the Confederation will carry out planned actions “because it is a very great concern of all the presidents of the assembly.”
Price gap with Argentina and reduction in working hours
“Until last year it was a drain primarily on commerce and national industry. And there has been a fairly rapid process of, I’m not saying equalization yet, but of narrowing that price gap,” reflected O’Neill when asked about the exchange difference with Argentinawhich has been considerably reduced since the assumption of the government of Javier Milei.
“It is undoubtedly valued very positively. Also for tourism, we saw that during Holy Week 95,000 Argentines entered the country, which is a very relevant number. So it’s good news,” he added.
Regarding the proposal for a possible reduction in the working day launched by the Colorado pre-candidate Tabare Viera and supported among others by the Frente Amplista Yamandu Orsithe president of the Business Confederation said that they were not opposed, but they had some nuances.
“We understand that it is not convenient to do it in a general way through legislation, which can be within the scope of negotiation as it has been, for example, in the construction sector, in the metallurgical sector or in the beverage sector. It seems to us that that is the way. We must not lose sight of the fact that in the Uruguay We have something like 200,000 companies and 80% are small companies that have one to five workers. So, when we talk about reducing the working day, we have to consider the entire range and weight that SMEs have in Uruguay, where this issue is very sensitive,” he contextualized.
Proposals for the electoral campaign
The president of the CCE also announced that at the assembly, inputs for a document that the institution will present to the presidential candidates were received from the technical teams.
The presentation will be at the end of May in a public event where all the pre-candidates and their teams will participate. “We evaluated what, of everything we proposed in 2019, came to fruition in this administration, which has been a few things. We were talking about fiscal rules, educational reform, social security reform, modify the investment promotion regime. In short, a number of things that were actually done. That also drives us to be very consistent and forceful with this document because we understand that these are things that will surely be taken into account later, in the dynamics of the administrations,” said O’Neill.
Source: Ambito
