The Argentine Economy

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Australian Guy: How is the Argentinian economy now, like there was a crash a few years ago wasn’t there?
Argentine Guy: The crash was in 2001 and after that I don’t know if you remember we had five presidents in three weeks.
Australian Guy: Wow!
Argentine Guy: And since then they all retired on full presidential salary.
Australian Guy: Wow!
Argentine Guy: (laughs) And since then it hasn’t really recovered. Although it depends. The private economy has actually really boomed because as a result of the currency devaluing by three times, all our costs… if you are exporting, labor costs are a lot cheaper and if you are exporting to the dollar…
Australian Guy: Right.
Argentine Guy: For instance if you are in the farming economy we were doing very well until last year and now they are beginning to have inflation and so they are really hitting down on the private sector for instance I am a cattle farmer and we can no longer export beef …
Australian Guy: Right.
Argentine Guy: The theory being if we don’t export beef then there is going to be more meat on the national market and so it is going to push the price of beef down
Australian Guy: Right.
Argentine Guy: And it is going to help control inflation…
Australian Guy: Right.
Argentine Guy: And that is just one example of how they try and doctor the numbers and not try and go to the root cause.
Australian Guy: Right!
Argentine Guy: And at the moment our president is in a huge corruption scandal so it looks like his wife is going to take over.
Australian guy: Wow! Right. Argentina was the richest country in South America ten years ago.
Argentine Guy: Argentina was the richest country in the world after the Second World War.
Australian Guy: After the second World War.
Argentine Guy: We are still the richest country in South America.
Australian Guy: Chile is pretty strong too.
Argentine Guy: (laughs)
Australian Guy: Not so much?
Argentine Guy: Chile; I think the statistic is Chile has a tenth of the resources of Argentina and it is half as wealthy. I can’t remember the exact figures. Basically the Chileans are a hundred per cent Spanish and Indian in origin and they work hard. The Chileans are what they call “the Swiss of South America” because they work really hard. They are really really boring people.
Australian Guy: (laughs) I know you have to catch a flight Where are you flying to?
Argentine Guy: I am flying…I have got a twenty-seven hour flight and twelve hours time difference. I am going to Malaysia to South Africa to Brazil.
Australian Guy: Wow! Back home. Right. Have a safe trip.
Argentine Guy: Yeah. Thank you.