Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Argentina's Economic Growth and Inflation Rates, 1999-2010
Year
GDP growth Rate
Inflation Rate
1999
-3.4
-1.8
2000
-0.5
-0.7
2001
-4.4
-1.5
2002
-10.9
41.0
2003
8.8
3.7
2004
9.0
6.1
2005
9.2
12.3
2006
8.5
9.8
2007
8.7
10.9
2008e
7.0
16.3
2009f
-1.0
23.0
2010f
-0.9
21.5
e = estimated
f = forecast
Then in June 2008, soybean prices broke when crisis struck the
international banking system. It was at this moment that newly
elected President Fernández lamented how fickle the economy could
be. She knew that an economic downturn could once again enlarge
the chronically unemployed sector and bring the
piqueteros
back
onto the streets. Even in the best of times after the deindustrializa-
tion craze of the 1990s, one-quarter of the population remained
either unemployed or underemployed. Those with jobs suffered
the loss of real income through inflation, and President Fernández
responded by raising salaries of union truck drivers and teachers and
monthly payments to pensioners. Politically, she could ill afford to
halt the redistribution policies that kept the needy afloat.
The first thing to which she resorted as the slipping economy
reduced government revenues was the nationalization of private retire-
ment accounts. Rather than prop up the federally guaranteed pen-
sion system, President Menem had encouraged the nation's youngest
employees to invest part of their paychecks in stock accounts of private
