Argentina
DEBT, CRISIS, AND FORGIVENESS
Basic Information
 Created in 1816
 Population: 43,024,374 (july 2014 est)
 Ethnic Groups:
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White (mostly Spanish and Italian) 97%,
Mestizo (mixed White and Amerindian ancestry), Amerindian, or non-white
groups 3%
 Literacy
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(age 10 and over can read and write) 97.9%
Male: 97.9%
Female: 98%
 Religious Groups:
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Roman Catholic 92% (less than 20% practicing)
Protestant 2%
Jewish 2%
Other 4%
Source: CIA World Fact Book
Political Background
 (1943-1946) Military Regime
 (1951-1955) Personalist
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Regime
(1955-1958) Military Regime
(1958-1966) Indirect
Military Regime
(1966-1973) Military Regime
(1976-1983) Military Regime
Source: Geddes, Wright, Frantz
Political Background Continued
 Regime
 Democracy as of 2000
 Stability
 Stable democracy since 1991
 Capacity
 Moderate
Source: Polity IV, The State of the State
Economy
 GDP per capita: $22,100 (2014 est.)
 Industries
 Food processing
 Motor vehicles
 Consumer durables
 Textiles
 Chemicals and petrochemicals
 Printing
 Metallurgy
 steel
Source: CIA World Factbook
Foreign Aid
 Debt: $115.7 billion
 Foreign aid received in 2010 was $121,120,000
Source: CIA World Factbook, Salmon
Declining Stability
 The Great Depression
 Exports dropped 40%
 Inflation increased
 The military junta 1930
 President Vrigoyen becomes scapegoat, violence, political
instability
 End of Democracy in Argentina
 Conservative economic policies and state intervention in
economic policies
Source: Scraping Through the Great Depression
Import Substitution Industrialization
 Promotion industrialization from based on national
production
 Government took over the provision of public
utilities and production in industries that were
considered strategic—iron, oil, and petrochemical
products
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Diverted investment from agricultural production
Source: Bebczuk, Gasparini
The End to Import Substitution, The Beginning
of Inflation
 The failure of ISI lead to commercial and financial
openness (manufactures in total exports rose from 4% to
23% (Waterbury, 335)
 Led to the 1980 Financial crisis in Argentina
Source: Waterbury, Balino &
Sundararajan, Cooney
International Monetary Fund
 Initially turned down Argentina in 1982
 Erecting barriers for less developed countries (Scott)
 In 1984 the IMF reached an agreement with
Argentina
Source: Balino, Sundararajan, Easterly
Privatization…Inequality
 In 1991, the need to eliminate inflation led the government
to:
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Privatize most things government owned
Renew fiscal and monetary order
Commercial and financial opening
Deregulate of private activity
Source:ebczuk,
Gasparini
The Argentine Economic Crisis
 The fixed exchange rate between the Argentine peso
and the US dollar.
 Large amounts of borrowing from the IMF by former
presidents
 Increase in debt due to reduced tax revenue
Source: Katel
Recovery
 Argentina left the
fixed exchange rate
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1 Argentine peso=1 US
dollar
2002: 4 Argentine
pesos=1 US dollar
Source: Pettinger
Pros and Cons of Devaluation
 Pros
 Increase in export demand (helped by rise in price of soy)
 Forced people to buy less imports and more domestically
produced goods
 Cons
 Big fall in standard of living
 Still inflation since devaluation
 Most savings were lost
 Argentina has a bad reputation for borrowing
Source: Pettinger
Bibliography
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Balino, Tomas J. Sundararajan, Vasudevan. Banking Crises: Cases and Issues. Print.
Bebczuk, Ricardo, and Leonardo Gasparini. "Globalisation and Inequality. The Case of Argentina."
Www.econo.unlp.edu.ar/depecoGlobalisation and Inequality The Case of Argentina * (n.d.): n. pag. Web
CIA World Factbook-https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ar.html
Cooney, Paul. "Argentinas Quarter Century Experiment with Neoliberalism: From Dictatorship to Depression." Scielo. N.p., n.d. Web.
Geddes, Barbara, Joseph Wright, and Erica Frantz. Autocratic Regimes Code Book Version 1.2. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Web.
Easterly, William. The Elusive Quest for Growth. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
Katel, Perter. "Argentin's Crisis Explained." Time. N.p., 20 Dec. 2001. Web.
<http%3A%2F%2Fcontent.time.com%2Ftime%2Fworld%2Farticle%2F0%2C8599%2C189393%2C00.html>.
Pettinger, Tejvan. "Argentina Crisis and Recovery." Economics Help. N.p., 18 June 2012. Web. 19 May 2015.
<http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/5422/economics/argentina-crisis-and-recovery/>.
Salmon, Felix. "Welcoming Argentina Back." Web log post. Reuters. N.p., 5 Nov. 2010. Web.
"Scraping through the Great Depression." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 01 June 2002. Web. 19 May 2015.
The Polity IV website http://www.systemicpeace.org/polity/polity4x.htm --7
"The State of The State." The Economist. N.p., 22 Nov. 2010. Web.
Waterbury, John. "The Long Gestation and Brief Triumph of Import-Substituting Industrialization." World Development 27.2 (1999): 323-41.
Web.