Massa said holding primaries would be “a very serious mistake”
Economy Minister Sergio Massa declined to comment on the possibility of being a presidential candidate in this year’s elections, and spoke against the idea of holding primaries in the Frente de Todos ruling coalition. “Exposing in primary elections whether the government has differences or not seems to me like a very serious mistake,” the minister said during the annual summit of the United States Chamber of Commerce in Argentina (Amcham Argentina). Massa said that the “last welding” on the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline will be done on Friday. Massa also referred to Argentina’s program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF.) In March 2022, Argentina signed an agreement renegotiating the US$ 44 billion debt former President Mauricio Macri acquired in 2018.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
May 10, 2023 22:37 UTC
Driving in fog, the concern of the business leaders
“Argentina is on the verge of a crisis, navigating in a fog bank. Leaders from Juntos por el Cambio were the two main figures of PRO: Patricia Bullrich and Horacio Rodríguez Larreta. Bullrich also gave her thoughts on what the dollar exchange rate should be. She thinks that the value should be located between the current official exchange rate, which she called a “lie,” and the informal (or blue) dollar. Today, the official exchange rate reached AR$ 228 per dollar and the blue dollar is at AR$ 471, so a value in the middle would leave an exchange rate of around $350.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
May 10, 2023 11:56 UTC
Head of Supreme Court criticized the government’s “excessive monetary emission”
The president of the Supreme Court, Justice Horacio Rosatti, said today that the national government’s monetary policy “betrays the mandate of the [National] Constitution.”“The text commands us to defend the value of the currency,” Rosatti said in the annual summit of the United States Chamber of Commerce in Argentina (Amcham Argentina). That move allowed Rosatti to take over as head of the institution, which is in charge of selecting federal judges. “It is an institutional coup,” said Justice Minister Martín Soria at the time. Amcham’s annual summit gathers business leaders, public officials, and civil society representatives. This year, it is taking place as the US and Argentina celebrate 200 years of commercial relations.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
May 10, 2023 02:50 UTC
Messi’s father and rep denies Al Hilal deal
The decision will not be made before Lionel finishes the season with PSG,” Messi’s father wrote on his Instagram account. “Once the season ends, that will be the time to analyze the options and then make a decision. Neither verbal nor signed nor agreed, and there won’t be until the season ends,” he wrote. Information about a deal between Messi and Al Hilal —which is currently coached by Argentine Ramon Díaz— was reported today by an international news agency, citing an unnamed “Saudi source close to the negotiations”. In response, Jorge Messi accused the media of “deceiving and lying constantly and deliberately, with no proof”.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
May 09, 2023 20:53 UTC
Inflation: Buenos Aires City hits 7.8% in April and 110% YoY
Inflation in Buenos Aires City was 7.8% in April, according to figures released by the City Government’s General Directorate of Statistics and Census (Dgeyc in Spanish) today. The capital saw a 110.4% inter-annual inflation rate and a total 31.2% increase in prices over the first trimester. The prices of fruits, vegetables, tubers and legumes drove the highers food prices with a 19.9% increase, followed by meats (11.5%), milk and dairy products and eggs (10.8%) and bread and cereals (8.5%). Rent raises and higher energy bills contributed to a 6.4% increase in housing costs. Following a controversial back and forth last week, the National Institute for Statistics and Census (INDEC, its Spanish acronym) is set to publish the national inflation rate on Friday, May 12.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
May 09, 2023 02:12 UTC
The Bullrich Plan: Patricia Bullrich’s team lay out road map to business leaders
Former government officials that form Patricia Bullrich’s economic team met with business leaders and anticipated the economic plan they are crafting. This cocktail of measures also monopolized a private meeting Bullrich’s economic staff held with business leaders a few days ago. No one will deny it: the PRO presidential candidate’s program would result in a recessive shock in early 2024. Regarding the currency exchange issue, they are analyzing a currency rate splitting. “It will go as high as it has to”, the presidential candidate’s team summarized.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
May 09, 2023 01:44 UTC
Chilean right wins majority in vote to draft new constitution
Chilean right-wing parties won a majority of votes on Sunday to elect advisers to draft a new constitution, marking a sharp shift from a progressive majority that drafted a failed first constitutional rewrite. With 95.13% of ballots tallied, Chile’s Republican Party, led by former conservative firebrand presidential candidate Jose Antonio Kast, secured nearly 35% of the vote. A separate coalition of traditional right-wing parties gained just over 20% of the vote, while President Gabriel Boric’s left-wing coalition garnered about 29%. The constitutional advisers elected on Sunday will start drawing up a new constitution in June based on a draft compiled by 24 constitutional experts appointed by Congress in March. “I want to invite the Republican Party, that’s won an unquestionable majority, to not make the same mistakes we made,” Boric said.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
May 08, 2023 12:34 UTC
Net reserves at negative US$1 billion
The Central Bank has negative international net reserves by at least US$1 billion, various consulting firms have calculated. A report by consulting firm Ecolatina published on Friday put them at negative US$1.1 billion, while one by 1816 calculated they were negative US$1 billion. Net international reserves are calculated by subtracting the Central Bank’s liabilities —such as the China swap and the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) special drawing rights— from its gross international reserves. Expert calculationsConsulting firm 1816 said net reserves are at their lowest levels since the first days of former President Mauricio Macri’s administration in 2015. Before that, net reserves had not been this low since the crisis that was unleashed after the country ditched the “convertibility” (the US dollar-peso parity) law in 2002.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
May 08, 2023 10:55 UTC
Ecuador frees cash for Galapagos conservation with bond buyback
Ecuador is set to complete the biggest ever debt-for-nature swap, freeing up cash for conservation of the Galapagos Islands, one of the world’s most precious ecosystems, after Credit Suisse bought up three of its bonds. The old debt will be replaced with a cheaper-to-service US$656 million “Galapagos Bond” maturing in 2041 and insured by the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. The buyback comes against a backdrop of political turmoil in Ecuador, with the National Assembly seeking to impeach President Guillermo Lasso for alleged embezzlement, which Lasso denies. Unique speciesThe volcanic Galapagos islands lie 600 miles (970 km) off Ecuador’s coast. It’s a good idea for a country that is trying to regain credibility with the market.”Tellimer analyst Stuart Culverhouse estimated that more of Ecuador’s bonds could have been bought.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
May 06, 2023 12:50 UTC
Paraguay president-elect commits to 'strengthen' ties with Taiwan
Paraguay’s president-elect, Santiago Peña, said on Friday that he would continue to strengthen his country’s “historic ties” with Taiwan following a call with his counterpart there after winning the election. The countries’ diplomatic relations of more than six decades had been in the spotlight before Sunday’s election, with opposition candidate Efrain Alegre saying he would seek to move his country closer to China to boost agricultural ties. Paraguay is Taiwan’s only South American ally and the island – claimed by China as its own – has lost support from Central American nations in recent years. We will keep strengthening the historic ties between Paraguay and the Republic of China (Taiwan), and look forward to working on mutually beneficial cooperation projects,” Peña said on Twitter, replying to President Tsai Ing-wen. Taiwan faces an uphill battle to keep ties with the 13 countries that currently recognize it as a sovereign nation, amid pressure from China.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
May 06, 2023 00:35 UTC
‘Wild Tales’ director Damian Szifrón joins Cannes film festival jury
Argentine filmmaker Damian Szifron, creator of the hit TV show The Pretenders (Los simuladores) and the 2014 Oscar-nominated film Wild Tales, will join the official competition jury of the 76th edition of the Cannes film festival. “The Festival de Cannes wishes to welcome a new generation of artists who direct, act, sing and write,” stated the release. The Pretenders, the film version produced by Paramount, is currently in the scriptwriting process and is scheduled for a 2024 release. Szifrón’s groundbreaking film debut, the 2004 dark comedy The Bottom of the Sea, premiered at the Mar del Plata film festival, where it won the Silver Ombú for best Ibero-American film. The Cannes jury will have the task of awarding the Palme d’Or to one of the 21 films announced in the Official Competition.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
May 05, 2023 15:02 UTC
This is how the U.S. Fed’s rate hike could affect Argentina
The U.S. Federal Reserve (FED) raised interest rates by 0.25 percentage points on Wednesday. That decision has consequences for countries across the world, including Argentina and local financial assets, because it affects the cost of money and the direction of capital flows. Economist Federico Glustein pointed out that a 0.25% rate hike is related to the US monetary contraction process. But he anticipates that this new increase will mean a decrease in global liquidity volumes, which will also drive a downward trend in financial assets. However, this has been reversed in recent months, and the prospect of the Federal Reserve not raising the interest rate as much helps.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
May 05, 2023 14:00 UTC
Violent Peru protest response may be 'massacre,' says rights group
“There were grave episodes of use of excessive force,” the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) concluded in a report. “We reject the supposed findings of extrajudicial killings and the ‘massacre’ description,” she said at a press conference. “There were serious human rights violations that must be investigated with due diligence and an ethno-racial approach,” said Margarette May Macaulay, head of the IACHR, which is the human rights arm of the Washington-based Organization of American States. “The deaths could constitute extrajudicial executions.”Bolaurte played down the wording of the IACHR’s report, saying it did not “confirm” the occurrence of human rights violations, but that they “could have happened.”The report affirmed that rights violations took place. The commission’s report follows a Human Rights Watch publication, which concluded that Peru’s security forces were responsible for protest deaths.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
May 05, 2023 01:01 UTC
Peruvian Minister says most foreigners have irregular status
More than half of the 1.5 million foreigners in Peru, mostly from Venezuela, are in the country under an irregular immigration status, Peru’s interior minister said Wednesday. The Peruvian government has said it is working with representatives from Chile, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela to evaluate the creation of a “humanitarian corridor” to allow the migrants to travel back to Venezuela. Around 150 Venezuelans will go back to their country on a flight from the Chilean city of Arica, which borders Peru, this weekend, Peruvian Foreign Minister Ana Cecilia Gervasi also told Congress. Most of Peru’s undocumented population arrived in the country after the government began granting Venezuelan migrants temporary residency in 2017, Romero said, with many migrants’ temporary residency since expiring. To combat the issue, Peru’s government has set a deadline to allow foreigners to regularize their immigration status.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
May 04, 2023 16:16 UTC
Lionel Messi to leave PSG, media report
Lionel Messi’s troubled stint at Paris Saint Germain is over, and the French team will not renew his contract when it ends in June this year, sports media in Europe and Argentina have reported. “Behind the scenes, it’s now understood that Leo’s father Jorge communicated the decision to PSG already one month ago due to the project. It was the final breaking point.”Neither Messi nor PSG had made official statements at the time of writing. According to Romano, PSG had decided to cancel one of the team’s two days off, giving players just Tuesday to rest. According to French media reports, PSG’s sports manager Luis Campos informed Messi of the sanction on Monday afternoon.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
May 04, 2023 05:09 UTC