The Economy: Fact or Fiction?

The foundations Alem, Argentina Siglo 21, Afianzar Abogados por la República, CIDI, CIESCO, Consenso Republicano, CADAL, Democracia y Consenso, Instituto Dr. Guillermo Maci, Movimiento Productivo Argentino, Nuevas Generaciones y Pensar, came together in a meeting called Consenso Cívico for their second event of analysis and debate. This time, the theme was “The Economy: Fact or Fiction?” and the meeting took place in the Monseñor Derisi Auditorium of the Universidad Católica Argentina.

The foundations Alem, Argentina Siglo 21, Afianzar Abogados por la República, CIDI, CIESCO, Consenso Republicano, CADAL, Democracia y Consenso, Instituto Dr. Guillermo Maci, Movimiento Productivo Argentino, Nuevas Generaciones y Pensar, came together in a meeting called Consenso Cívico for their second event of analysis and debate. This time, the theme was "The Economy: Fact or Fiction?" and the meeting took place in the Monseñor Derisi Auditorium of the Universidad Católica Argentina.

The first panel, titled "Federalism, cooperation and regional development," was moderated by the journalist and historian Daniel Muchnik and included the economists Alieto Guadagni, the former National Secretary of Energy; Miguel Braun, Executive Director of Fundación Pensar; and Federico Sturzenegger, President of Banco Ciudad.
According to Braun, "what the national government has done is to deepen the problems of federalism, giving more autonomy to the Executive Power, lowering the transparency of public actions and funds, phenomenally concentrating the resources, increasing discretionary tranfers to the provinces in an unequal manner, and carrying out in this way a policy of fiscal submission." This statement was shared by Sturzenegger, who pointed out that the current government's version of events is exactly the opposite of reality: "they become more centralized, while they say 'we are federalizing.' For example, in the case of YPF, they have had a discussion of nationalization, when they have taken the distribution of oil revenue away from the provinces."

The second panel, titled "Inflation, wages, and confidence," was moderated by the journalist Diego Cabot and began with a speech by Javier González Fraga, the former President of Banco Central. The next speaker was Daniel Montamat, the former National Secretary of Energy, and the panel ended with Aldo Pignanelli, another former President of Banco Central. González Fraga spoke out strongly against the official narrative, asserting that "today, the mother of all the fictions is INDEC, it's the liar that is clearly affecting us. Since January 2007, they have hidden around 80 points of inflation, which allows these crazy political exchanges, taxes, etc. But the worst thing about INDEC is that it took us out of the world, because when its irregularities were recognized, Argentina's country risk shot up, and this left us isolated."
Montamat suggested "to generate consensus about what should be the modern progressive story, which has four parts: to restore a type of competitive exchange, access to international credit, energy self-suffiency, and the prestige that would come from a strategic reinsertion in the world after such an opportunity."
The meeting ended with comments from Diego Cabot, who proposed  that the solution to Argentina's current economic problems is reaching a consensus on an ideal that incudes both members of the opposition as well as government supporters.