Argentina

Argentina

I spent the 17th and 18th of September in a conference in Buenos Aires sponsored by the Camara Inmobiliaria Argentina. While there was a lot of great information, I will share some insights gained on the Economy here. The appearance of things on the street is very good. People are out spending money. The building cranes are hard at work. The city looks better every year. The official numbers tell a different story.

The price of Soy has been dropping. Soy is critical to Argentina. The US dollar has been dropping. Argentines do their big deals in dollars. The Argentines have been converting their money to dollars and taking the dollars out of circulation. This combined with the current tight lending situation is causing a liquidity crisis.

The government has tried to balance the entire economy on the back of the farmers. The farmers blocked all the roads and threatened to quit bringing food to the city. The government caved; but this hurts the liquidity situation even more. Add to this the ridiculous retirement regime and the bloated public sector and we have a recipe for another real economic crisis. Argentina has not been able to de-couple from the world economy. It seems as if we will all suffer together. At least they will suffer with the best steak and some of the best wine in the world. It’s hard to feel sorry for them.

Sorry to be so late in posting this. I have had a difficult schedule. I am in Brazil now and will do a series of items to post 1 per day.



David Segrest is a REALTOR in Charlotte NC. His website is http://www.segrestrealty.com His email is david@segrestrealty.com