The Minister of Economy, Luis "Toto" Caputo, projected that Argentinians have about 200 billion dollars saved and reiterated that, with a series of measures to be announced in the coming days, he will seek to mobilize part of that capital to boost economic growth.
Caputo spoke this Thursday at the 11th edition of the Latam Economic Forum, held at Parque Norte in the City of Buenos Aires. During his presentation, he emphasized that the country is experiencing a stage of stability "unprecedented in history," valued the initial achievements of the economic plan of the Government of Javier Milei and confirmed the intention to advance with the remonetization of the economy, both in local currency and in dollars.
The official spoke before an audience of more than a thousand attendees, at a charitable event organized by Research for Traders. Referring to remonetization, he indicated that currently the financial system presents very low liquidity levels, a result of the initial scheme of the economic program, aimed at contracting the monetary base and thus reducing pressure on the exchange rate. According to his analysis, this scenario must be gradually modified to promote sustainable growth of credit and consumption.
Javier Milei y Luis Caputo.
"The economy is healthy. When nominality decreases, the interest rate drops, the demand for money rises, and that allows credit to recover," he explained. He also emphasized that the remonetization process could occur in pesos if the dollar value reaches the floor of the exchange band, which would allow the Central Bank to buy foreign currency and issue backed by those purchases.
Towards the end of his intervention, the minister mentioned that they are also working on promoting remonetization in dollars. It was in this context that he delivered the most notable phrase of his presentation: "There are USD 200 billion in mattresses, so why not use those dollars that people already have?"
Without going into concrete details, he anticipated that there will be announcements related to this initiative in the coming days. "We continue and will continue in a highly orderly macroeconomic context," he stated. At the end of his participation, Darío Epstein, director of Research for Traders, commented that in the Once neighborhood, textile merchants already operate directly with cash dollars, and asked him if that practice would extend. "Yes, but with an invoice," Caputo replied before leaving the stage.
Luis Caputo, ministro de Economía.
Tax reductions
He also estimated that "if the economy in the next 7 years, hopefully up to two terms of Milei, grows at 6%, we will be able to reduce taxes by 1.5 points (of GDP) per year. This is equivalent to returning about USD 420 billion to the private sector in the next six and a half years. And if we grew at 8%, something feasible for an orderly Argentina, we could reduce by 2 points of GDP per year, which would be USD 550 billion returned to the private sector."
He recalled: "Last year I came here and made some promises. Today I am happy that those promises have been fulfilled." He then specified that the economy is growing at a rate of 6%, that real wages increased by 15%, and that "10 million Argentinians were lifted out of poverty."
