From: Carlos Gonzalia <gonzalia@md.chalmers.se>
>Same here, particularly considering I'm going back to my country after
>graduation, and try my humblest best to keep the ship from sinking.
Please do! (I like your country's writers. :-) )
I was under the impression that life was improving in Argentina, but
perhaps I was wrong. The last few years have been difficult there.
(I suppose the following is reasonably accurate (?). )
From:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ar.html
Economy - overview: Argentina benefits from rich natural resources,
a highly literate population, an export-oriented agricultural
sector, and a diversified industrial base. However, when President
Carlos MENEM took office in 1989, the country had piled up huge
external debts, inflation had reached 200% per month, and output was
plummeting. To combat the economic crisis, the government embarked
on a path of trade liberalization, deregulation, and privatization.
In 1991, it implemented radical monetary reforms which pegged the
peso to the US dollar and limited the growth in the monetary base by
law to the growth in reserves. Inflation fell sharply in subsequent
years. In 1995, the Mexican peso crisis produced capital flight, the
loss of banking system deposits, and a severe, but short-lived,
recession; a series of reforms to bolster the domestic banking
system followed. Real GDP growth recovered strongly, reaching 8% in
1997. In 1998, international financial turmoil caused by Russia's
problems and increasing investor anxiety over Brazil produced the
highest domestic interest rates in more than three years, halving
the growth rate of the economy. Conditions worsened in 1999 with GDP
falling by 3%. President Fernando DE LA RUA, who took office in
December 1999, sponsored tax increases and spending cuts to reduce
the deficit, which had ballooned to 2.5% of GDP in 1999. The new
government also arranged a new $7.4 billion stand-by facility with
the IMF for contingency purposes - almost three times the size of
the previous arrangement. Key challenges facing the new government
include reforming the country's rigid labor code and addressing the
precarious financial situation of several highly indebted provinces.
Amara
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