The president said April inflation “is not what we want” and revealed a conversation with Massa

Before INDEC released the inflation rate for April, which threatens to be around 8%, President Alberto Fernández acknowledged that the data “is not what we want” and analyzed the current economic scenario. The Argentine economy has rare, unique characteristics, difficult to explain from world experiences,” the president began. “We have 33 months of consecutive job growth on record. And the first quarter, it was the highest industry growth in I don’t know how many years. One sees that there is a movement of the economy that makes the economy effectively working,” he said. But he admitted that he also finds inflation “a very serious problem” and “very difficult to manage.” There, he introduced the concept of “psychological inflation,” which earned him so much criticism. We had a run in April that took the dollar to $500, and within a week it was back in prices… it went up and down,” Fernandez recalled. And he pointed out that after that decline that marked the currency in the parallel market, prices did not fall.” This price rise operates in the heads of Argentines, as all that rise is going to affect prices, and there is an escalation of prices, “he said. “We have a very serious problem to solve,” he added. In that context, he revealed a conversation he had last night with his finance minister.” Yesterday I was talking to Sergio [Massa] And I told him ‘we have to set some definitive goal to stop this’, because there are many causes that are generating this. One, speculation, that there may be a devaluation,” he said. Then, he said: “What many criticized me and that I called self-constructed inflation, is precisely that, what is called psychological inflation, which is not in the consumer, but in the small merchant.” The goal is to curb inflation, Sergio has tried, at some point it worked and at another, it didn’t,” he said. The definition of the Head of State takes place hours before the INDEC releases the CPI for April, which could replicate the 7.7% – the highest in 20 years – that marked in March. “It’s not what we want,” Fernandez said when asked about today’s data. “Inflation is a problem and to fight it I cannot be a candidate, I have to be president,” he said yesterday during an official ceremony. He ended the discussion about his candidacy. But his statements were also read as a shot by elevation to the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, who sounds like a candidate of the Frente de Todos. Some media interpreted that it was a metamessage for Sergio, he clarified in dialogue with Radio 10-. It’s my opinion, it’s what I believe. I know what a campaign is and you have to dedicate a lot of time to it, it’s a singular wear and tear. I need to leave the next president a more orderly country.” With a retrospective look, the president listed the “obstacles” he faced during his administration, such as, he mentioned, the legacy of the Government of Mauricio Macri, the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the drought, and stressed that despite this, the country grew 16 points in the last three years. He again mentioned the obstacles faced by his government, starting with the legacy of the Macri Government, and followed by the rest of external factors that conditioned his management. We grew 16 points, he said. “It’s not little.” And he assured that Argentina has ahead “an incredible opportunity for growth, because what the world is going to demand the most, is in Argentina.”News in development…

Original source in Spanish