The Minister of Economy, Luis “Toto” Caputo, He assured this Thursday that dollar cardalso known as the tourist dollar, “it’s going to go down” in its price and predicted the end of the stocks will change for 2025, “without a doubt.”
Currently, the tourist dollar is made up of 30% of the PAIS tax and a 30% perception of the Income Tax.
“The tourist dollar is going to go down. Most people pay the cancellation of the Country Tax with dollars, and not with pesos. They are not going to empty the Central Bank that’s why. And the dollar card is going to follow something higher than the official“added the head of the Palacio de Hacienda, recently venerated by Javier Milei.
On the other hand, he was consulted about when will the stocks be lifted. “Some of the convergences that we are looking for are occurring,” he stated in line with the postulates that the President himself anticipated this Wednesday. Caputo timidly advanced deadlines and added that “it will be in 2025, without a doubt.”
However, he objected to a missing variable. “Although not one of them, which is the level of reserves of the Central Bankbecause although a lot was purchased, we had to make many payments. “When those conditions are met, in 2025, it will be lifted.”
“There is no rush because the blue dollar is already converging With the official, the country is growing (and will do so at 5% or more) and because we are achieving long-term investments, and those who do it do not care about the short term,” the minister enthused.
Regarding another exchange policy that the Government announced, the end of the Country Tax since December, Caputo assured that “that benefits those who cannot travel to buy cheaper things, and the government toobecause those trips would involve a greater demand for dollars.”
“It is also a warning for the companies, why They should lower the barbecause there will be greater demand… We will have to compete“he warned, against the background of changes in the door-to-door shopping regime.
Caputo explained that the Government analyzes lowering taxes and withholdings if some variables occur favorable to economic policy. “The market validates inflation of 18% annually that we project for next year, and the country will grow 5% of its GDP. Growth will allow us to lower taxes and withholdings on the countryside, when we have the necessary surplus”he anticipated.
But, in a kind of confusion, he clarified: “If we did it nowwe would have a deficit the following month, we would need to broadcast, and Cristina Kirchner would return there and would go everything to hell“.
The minister was satisfied with the economic direction that the country is going through. “That the wholesale inflation in October it was 1.2% is a joy. We are at levels that a year or months ago were unthinkable. The middle class is fighting it, but all the numbers confirm that we are on the right path. During the last six months, salaries beat inflation,” he stated in a usual sermon of the enthusiastic official speech.
Caputo also spoke of the possibility of resorting to International Monetary Funda topic that Milei presented as an option after her meetings with Kristalina Georgieva.
“With the IMF we have started talking informally about a new program to which, if we arrived, that would mean a disbursement of money. We are studying how that money would come in. We are proposing our economic and exchange policy,” he said.
Luis Caputo, from Victoria Villarruel to Cristina Kirchner and Axel Kicillof
One day after the President declared that Victoria Villarruel has no influence in government decisions, the Minister of Economy referred to the divide between the two.
“With Villarruel I have almost no relationship. We are at two different extremes: I in the Executive and she in the institutional part. But The President said things that are truesuch as Villarruel does not participate in executive decisions, nor in Cabinet meetings. She came to meetings very rarely. Villarruel deal with caste… is chaste, but with the President they have the institutional relationship they must have“.
Caputo became more dispatched when he was given the opportunity to talk about Kirchnerism. “Alberto Fernández is the president who left the worst legacy in history. Now, I don’t know if he was in charge. And Cristina Kirchner was largely responsible for the worst governments that Argentina has seen, and also about corruption.
There was a mention of the former president when Caputo was consulted when will taxes be lowered. “We are playing it safe. We came to lower inflation, taxes and withholdings but it does not serve the people or the countryside.” take reckless steps because if it goes wrong the risk of making a mistake is very high”, he introduced.
“If I lower the tax on the check and lower the withholdings, I start running a deficit the following month. Then the program is unpinnedpeople are going to say ‘bye, we sound’ because they are not going to be able to finance themselves [el Gobierno] and have to broadcast, Cristina returns and everything goes to hell”, summarized Caputo.
Immediately in the conversation on TN he talked about what happened in the PASO 2019 when Mauricio Macri was the President. The current minister had been the head of the Central Bank until 2018 in the midst of that financial crisis that caused the dollar to go from $17 to almost $60 in two years after the internal election. In the middle, a survey that gave Cristina Kirchner a chance to win the elections generated turbulence in the markets. Caputo was referring to this when he said “Cristina returns and leaves.” everything to hell”.
Finally, he did not leave the governor of the Province out of his criticism, he assured: “Axel Kicillof… meters. He worst economy minister and worst governor of history. “The entire debacle of Kirchnerism comes from his functions as minister.”