adjust to below

There are only a few days left before the elections and Sergio Massa is facing (again) exchange pressures, the blue dollar resumed its run in electoral mode and ended the week above $570. It is likely that he will continue his upward path due to electoral uncertainty and what is to come.

Meanwhile, the minister took another rabbit out of the hat and added Qatar as new creditor to cancel the maturities to the IMF, last payment before the presidential simultaneous and mandatory open primaries (PASO) on August 13.

The candidate minister’s juggling to comply with payments to the Fund also included a loan from the Andean Development Corporation (CAF), and yuan from the expansion of the Chinese swap. In summary: more debt to cancel debt.

Qatar is the richest emirate in the Persian Gulf, maintains ties with the United States and has 13% of the world’s oil reserves. Qatar’s loan was the product of, on the one hand, “Massa’s contacts, since the sheikh, although he is the first sheikh, is a friend (of the minister), and, on the other, that the Arab country does not hide the great interests than in the areas of energy and food security”, published Télam from a consulted source. It is not surprising that another country joins the ranks of those interested in plunder the natural commons like water, or lithium. On the other side of the window, Peronists, radicals, liberals and Together for Change are willing to move forward with the auction.

The Fund is still there

The IMF is not running in the elections. However, it has many candidates who, with the sole exception of the candidates on the left, are willing to support the agreement with the Fund and advance with the adjustment on the popular majorities. There is no gap for the cuts, only the times to perform it differ.

Massa completed one year at the head of the Ministry of Economy and was in charge of complying with what the Fund requested. In terms of spending, In the first half of the year, the minister under-executed items sensitive as health (39.6% were executed), housing and urbanism (29,9%) y drinking water and sewage (33%), and of the total current budget, 48% was executed, according to data from the Civil Association for Equality and Justice (ACIJ).

In addition, ACIJ warned that Congress incorporated the increase in spending in this year’s budget after the claim of different organizations for the reduction of items that impacted “access to the rights of groups and people in vulnerable situations”, but finally the Chief of Staff and the Ministry of Economy did not restore the cut budget. So, adjusted in this year’s budget Food policies, family allowances, National Teacher Incentive Fund, Scholarships for studentsamong other.

Massa got angry with a journalist who asked him about inflation, but the Government also benefited from the price increase because it allows it to liquefy budget items based on reaching the goals agreed with the Fund. The budget adjustment via inflation affects the daily life of the population due to fewer resources for retirement, family allowances (AUH), social programs (Potenciar trabajo), among other affected items.

The pruning also included energy subsidies and electricity bills began to reach homes with strong increases. According to data from INDEC, the sector Electricity, gas and other fuels rose 156% since Massa took office until June of this year while general inflation in the same period was 89% in the Greater Buenos Aires region. The same thing happened in the rest of the country’s regions during that period: the increase in electricity and gas was higher than inflation. This is not enough for the Fund, which insists on “update energy rates”. The Fund stood firm in the primary fiscal deficit target of 1.9% of GDP that Massa wants to fulfill. Therefore, it will follow the setting to Background.

Los forthcoming IMF disbursements They will be held after the elections in August and November. Thus, the Fund has a phenomenal weapon to even influence the elections if what the Frente de Todos government is doing does not satisfy it. This is not new for the Fund, as it has done it on other occasions: with Raúl Alfonsín, whose hand he let go of almost a year before he ended his government; or with Fernando de la Rúa, a government that did everything to comply with the multilateral organization and, nevertheless, let go of his hand. Mauricio Macri had the full support of the Fund, but it led to more indebtedness and a strong devaluation. Massa wants the IMF to support him, but the agency takes its time (postPaso) to decide whether to send the pending dollars.

strengthen left

Since its inauguration, the Frente de Todos government has made it a priority to honor the scams left by Mauricio Macri. First, restructured the debt with private creditors, which was closed during 2020 in the midst of the pandemic and in a context of an acute social crisis. After renegotiated the agreement with the Fund and it was presented as the only alternative.

While honoring the illegal debt was prioritizedthe poverty increased to 39,2% and the purchasing power of workers receded. The purchasing power of male and female workers (registered and unregistered) fell by 5% during the Frente de Todos government. The situation is more serious if the Macrista government is included, wages lost 23%. He Mirador group of Current Affairs of Labor and the Economy (MATE) calculated that the pocket of each worker accumulates a loss of $4.7 million (in pesos of June of this year) since 2016.

In these elections only the left front makes a proposal that aims to respond to the needs of the working class. Next Sunday strengthen the left with your vote for Myriam Bregman and Nicolás del Caño, pre-candidates for President and Vice for list A “Unite and Strengthen the Left.” His economic proposals include the Reduction of the working day to 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, without salary reduction, to work all with a salary that at least covers the family basket.

One has to throw to the bottom, their looting pushes the social crisis in all the places in the world where their policies are practiced, as has already happened in Argentina, or in Greece, where it caused the greatest economic destruction that a country suffered in times of peace. You need a sovereign disregard of debt supported by popular mobilization and accompanied by a series of national defense measures that prevent capital flight and the economic chaos that speculator vultures want to generate.