Carlos Menem
Major Changes
Immediately after being elected, Menem announced major plans to open the economy. During his first presidency, his policies were thought to help the economy to grow and promised a period of prosperity. However, his second presidency showed how unsuccessful these policies were. Argentina entered a deep recession with no hopes.
First Presidency
- Convertibility Law
In 1991, he created a currency board that proposed the Convertibility Law, which was passed by the Congress. This law made the peso (Argentina currency) convertible with the dollar at a fixed nominal exchange rate, with the domestic monetary base fully backed by the foreign exchange reserves of the Central Bank. Because of this new currency board system, the government couldn't issue notes without the full support of foreign reserves. Under this law, the government's liabilities could not be payed by printing money. This helped to solve the hyperinflation problem immediately.
- Privatization of national companies
Between 1990 and 1994, Menem privatized: 1 airlines 2 gas transportation and distribution 3 passenger and cargo railways 4 power generation and distribution 5 telecommunications & the postal service 6 water and sewage systems 7 oil and gas extraction facilities, coal mines, petrochemical plants, steel mills 8 most public banks.
This reduced government consumption since all the state companies left were unproductive and inefficient, and were operating at a loss. By selling all this national patrimony U$S 60,000 million were lost. Two example was YPF (national oil company), Aerolineas Argentinas (national airlines). All the Boeing 707 were sold by only 1 dollar each. Although the companies were released of their debt when sold to foreign companies, the total debt they owed was taken by the government.
- Deregulation
Menem eliminated price and exchange rate controls, and removed export taxes and import quotas. By deregulating the economy, the cost of doing business drastically decreased and stimulated, so the output increased too.
Sources
Australian Goverment Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Introduction | Dictatorship | Raúl Alfonsín | Fernando de la Rúa
Interim Presidents | Néstor Kirchner | Graphs | Final Analysis
