Hanging on, and tucking inTHE president “will not leave in a helicopter”, promised Julio Alak, Argentina’s justice minister, last October. An earlier president, Fernando de la Rúa, had done just that in 2001, when all other means of fleeing from his palace were blocked by pot-banging protesters. In October, as in 2001, Argentina was in the throes of an economic crisis, though a milder one. It had defaulted on its foreign debt. Foreign-exchange reserves had dropped to their lowest level in eight years; inflation was 40%; pesos were worth roughly half as much in the “blue dollar” market as at the official exchange rate. President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner looked chopper-ready.
Since then things have calmed down. Reserves have recovered, from $28 billion to $33 billion. Inflation has slowed to 29%. The gap between blue and official dollars has narrowed. This does not mean that the economy is in good shape: it is expected to shrink by about 0.3% this year. On June 9th trade unions held a transport strike to demand higher wages and lower taxes. But few Argentines now think that Ms Fernández will be airlifted from the...
from The Economist: The Americas http://ift.tt/1f52Rnc
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