There’s no one reason for this but a major problem is that the government spends more than it has to keep up it borrows or prints more money which devalues a currency this Administration has tried a slew of policies to curb inflation such as price controls increasing salaries and negotiating debt with foreign lenders
With the value of the peso plummeting people are rushing to buy dollars but the government limits who can make exchanges and how much they can get creating a vast illegal Market fabulous downtown Buenos Aires is packed with Arbolitos money exchangers selling dollars for about twice the official rate
And some saviar rolitos like Fernando santangelo will deliver them right to your door on a good day he’s exchanging up to twenty thousand dollars for clients all across Buenos Aires Opera Neces a lot of this is through WhatsApp it’s through you know posting on Facebook tell us a little bit about how how that works foreign Eros a compressions the illegal Market is so widespread that santangelo says that some of his clients are police officers and government workers he also says that Arbolitos like
Him get fed the rate of the street dollar directly from people inside the central bank de cambio foreign the Central Bank denies any involvement in setting The Unofficial rate and says that it collaborates with authorities to crack down on the illegal Exchange Market Argentina has a general election later
This year and inflation is a hot issue Mercedes Alessandro is a former top government official in the ministry of economy is what do you think about the policies that this government previous governments as well but this government has put in place in order to deal with this economic crisis
We’ve got a very contentious presidential election at the end of 2023. how do you see the kinds of discussions that are already happening around inflation around the economic crisis here how do you see that playing out politically okay foreign it’s not just opposition voices on the right talking about inflation
In Argentina the street is a really important political tool these are low-income earners and welfare recipients who are an important voting block for the current government they’re out here demanding higher wages and criticizing economic policies pushed by the previous right-wing Administration but also by this Coalition left-wing government the fact that they’re even
Doing that is a sign that cracks are beginning to show in that Coalition ahead of the next elections Thomas Is do you still support the government um foreign Is the impact of inflation more dramatic than in the grocery store is so important Cinco um as prices go up everyday purchases require piles of cash foreign what kind of impact does that have on your own earnings foreign too often traditional news outlets shy away from the real stories and
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