The board of directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) moved forward on Friday with the approval to increase its reserves by more than $650 billion through the extension of the concept of additional issuance of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), for which Argentina could receive $4.35 billion in the last quarter of the year.
Category: Macroeconomy/Finance
Information regarding Argentina’s productive sector and the country’s macroeconomy.
Government to start construction of more than 100,000 housing units in 2020
The government is targeting construction to reactivate the economy. More than 110 thousand housing units will enter the execution stage in 2021. The estimated investment until 2023 is 890 billion pesos ($9.31 bn).
Unemployment fell in the first quarter and reached 10.2%
The unemployment rate was 10.2% during the first quarter of 2021, as reported this Thursday by INDEC. Thus, it contracted 0.2 percentage points compared to the same 2020 and 0.8 percentage points compared to the previous quarter. A lower number of unemployed and an increase in the activity rate (which went from 45% to 46.3%) explains it, covering approximately 29 million people.
Trade surplus reached $1.62 bn
On the back of solid growth in exports on record commodity prices, the trade balance in May showed a surplus of $1.62 billion, the highest figure in a year.
May inflation was 3.3%
Inflation in May was 3.3%, as published by INDEC. The figure is lower than what the market expected and slowed down concerning the 4% floor recorded in the last months. However, the Consumer Price Index accumulates an increase of 21.5% in the first five months of the year, the highest inflationary start for an electoral period, despite tariffs and the dollar as "anchors".
Due to tax pressure, the State retains almost 62% of agricultural income
The June report of the Fundación Agropecuaria para el Desarrollo de Argentina (FADA) showed that in the last quarter, 61.8% of the income produced by the farm retained by the State through the collection of taxes. The main component of these taxes is export duties, which added the tax on bank credits and debits.
Public debt exceeded $341 bn
Preliminary statistics on Central Government debt showed a new increase in financial commitments, to $341.17 billion. In addition, $338.56 billion are regular payment, $106 million are deferred payment, and $2.5 billion are eligible for restructuring. The debt increased in May by $1.23 billion due to the growth of net credit taken to finance the public finance deficit; and $1.42 billion due to adjustments and exchange differences.
Government boosts the economy: will inject $525 million
The changes in the Income Tax of the fourth category that will be in force as from July will imply an additional disposable income for workers of 50 billion pesos ($525 mn). The data, released by AFIP, consider what will stop withholding income tax to 1.2 million people during the second half of 2021 and what will return it to them in five instalments of everything withheld from January until today. The Government expects to release 8 billion pesos ($84 mn) to the economy in July.
Covid spending: up 300% and exceeds $1.31 bn
In only five months and with the pandemic far from its end, government spending on the coronavirus increased 309%. By May, the government spent 125.43 billion pesos ($1.31 billion) on covid, which leaves almost 70% remaining of the budget and credits to face the pandemic. Source: Ámbito
Successful placement of $21.38 mn real estate investment fund
This week, the first real estate Closed-end Mutual Fund, Pellegrini I, was placed in the local capital market to finance the development and construction of housing for the middle and low-income sectors of the population. Pellegrini S.A., a company of Banco Nación, acted as Managing Company and Banco de Valores acted as depositary, arranging the issue and the placement, which closed at a total of 2,033 million pesos ($21.38 mn).
