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Argentina seems to be constantly in a crisis and COVID-19 has not improved that record. Nonetheless, the untapped potential of the country remains there.
There are many countries which owe their success to their abundance of natural resources or geographic characteristics. However, there are also many which, despite all their natural fortunes, seem to be unable to fulfil their potential. There should not be a lot of countries embodying this reality as well as Argentina. The country is blessed with hundreds of thousands of square miles of extraordinarily fertile lands, as well as oil and natural gas reserves. Besides this, the country also has sizeable mining reserves of copper, aluminium, zinc and lithium. There is an old saying amongst economists that “throughout history, there have been only four kinds of economies in the world: advanced, developing, Japan and Argentina”, and, although Japan is no longer the bustling economy it once was, the South American country still remains very much economically unstable.
Argentina’s Belle Époque
Albeit struggling, Argentina has not always been economically troubled. In fact, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries the country was quite prosperous. This period was an era of rapid economic growth with large inflows of capital and labour from overseas, as a result of the expansion of the agricultural frontier, fueled by a surge in the world demand for commodities, particularly, cattle meat. This led to the country entering the 20th century as one of the wealthiest places on Earth. In 1913, the country’s GDP per capita was larger than France or Germany and was almost as large as that of Canada. However, it must be said it was also a very unequal society.
A story of economic instability
In spite of the expansion, as it often happens with commodity dependent economies, the boom was not to last and, by 1913, fortunes were already changing, starting with a major downturn that emerged in the London capital market and that spilled over to Argentina. The next year, WWI started, greatly constraining capital and goods markets, leading to a major recession.
Some years later, in 1929, the world was hit by the Great Depression, which led to further instability in external markets. Surprisingly, though, it was a shock that had a relatively mild effect on Argentina, when compared to the US, with unemployment never going above 10%. From 1929 to 1932, the country’s real domestic output “only” fell by 14% and, by 1935, it had already surpassed its 1929 level. Nonetheless, the Great Depression has ultimately led to a halt in the country’s relative prosperity, as it culminated in a military junta taking power in 1930, which would be a recurring theme throughout the 20th century. Throughout the 1930s and WWII, the economy would continue to be sluggish.
This increased instability eventually resulted in Juan Perón – a military general whose ideas still influence Argentinian politics to this day – taking power in 1946. His tenure was marked by flirtations with fascism, combined with the idea of self-reliance and import substitution of industrial goods. Nevertheless, even though the economy continued to grow, this growth was slower than that overall registered across the world and the quality of life of the average population declined. In the end, the regime lost popularity and was eventually overthrown.
“Instability” is the word that best describes the rest of the 20th century for Argentina. Throughout this time period, the country experienced constant upheaval, with weak democratic governments and military juntas being overthrown as quickly as they would rise. Needless to say, the country entered in a period of stagnation, only made worse by recurring inflation crises.
Troubles with inflation led Argentina to adopt a fixed exchange regime with a peg to the US dollar in 1992, which was accompanied by increased openness to trade and market reforms. For a short period of time, things seemed to be heading in the right direction, since the peg helped the country stabilize prices and get rid of high inflation, with large capital inflows following.
Unfortunately, the 90s also saw major recessions in Latin American economies that negatively impacted Argentina. Eventually, the country would find itself forced to drop its peg in 2001, leading, once again, to high inflation and to the worst economic crisis in the country’s history. GDP fell by nearly 20% in 4 years, unemployment reached 25%, the peso depreciated by 70% and the government defaulted on its debt. Savings of entire working-lives were wiped out, contributing to a dollarization that is still largely present.
Fortunately, Argentina did recover from 2003 onwards, thanks to expansionary policies and, especially, to a surge in commodity exports and prices, with the economy nearly doubling by 2011. The following years were not as fortunate, though, and, by 2018, the government found itself asking for IMF intervention once more, as it had already done in 2001.
How is the Argentine economy currently doing?
With COVID-19 now impacting the economy as well, Argentina has struggled to recover. During 2020, the country suffered a new series of demand-side shocks, causing an already struggling economy to plummet, in one of the largest retractions in 2020 – GDP declined by 9,9%. The effects were also felt in the labor market, with nearly a third of the country’s workforce unemployed or that has given up on finding work. To counteract the impacts of the crisis, the Government implemented an emergency package, in order to protect the most vulnerable and support companies during lockdown.
Meanwhile, as inflation nears 40% and its central bank is short on dollars, Argentina faces renewed pressures to devaluate its currency. Furthermore, the $30 billion bail-out that benefited the country in 2018 are part of the total of $44 billion in loans that the country owes to the International Monetary Fund and that President Alberto Fernández and his government are trying to renegotiate.
President Fernández has a chance to implement reforms to create opportunities for renewed investment, job creation and economic growth, but the delicate situation of Argentina implies extensive due diligence by investors to understand the country’s political risk dynamics and outlook.
What are the future preventive measures for the coming years?
As aforementioned, the risks associated with the political and economic outlooks have kept investors’ attentions out of Argentina. Fernandez’s only chance to return to meaningful growth in the medium-term is to provide investors, both domestic and foreign, with legal and macroeconomic assurance.
One of the key elements to do so is a successful renegotiation of the IMF bailout in 2021. This should set a clear path for the reduction of the fiscal deficit and the gradual removal of major operating constraints on businesses. Among those are liberating the ARS/USD exchange rate, as well as capital and import controls, even if slowly. Deeper changes involving significant tax and labor reforms to improve doing business in the country should also be considered.
Final Remarks
With a history of political and economic instability, Argentina faces, once again, a tumultuous period, as the effect of the pandemic spreads through the economy. But there might be some light at the end of the tunnel. Rising commodities prices may give Argentina some breathing room to survive the devastating effects of the pandemic crisis and the renegotiation of the IMF bailout may be the first step of a series of reforms in public and monetary policy which may bring back the prosperity once seen in early 20th century.
Sources: Bloomberg, El País, Forbes, IMF, History Channel, Wikipedia, World Bank
Rodolfo Carrasquinho
João Diogo Correia
Raquel Novo
theawarenessnews.com 