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3,500 | <s>[INST] accountid=28034 Abstract: Mr [Boris] Yeltsin's comments came as Victor Chernomyrdin, acting prime minister, scrambled [/INST] to put together a coherent economic programme to tackle Russia's deepening crisis and to win parliamentary backing for his government in a vote on Monday. </s> |
3,501 | <s>[INST] Russia's leading businessmen, the "oligarchs", are lobbying the [/INST] government to put Boris Fyodorov, a prominent reformer, in charge of economic policy. </s> |
3,502 | <s>[INST] They are also behind an invitation [/INST] to Domingo Cavallo, architect of Argentina's financial stabilisation, to advise Moscow. </s> |
3,503 | <s>[INST] US President Bill Clinton yesterday decided to [/INST] go ahead with his planned visit to Moscow which starts on Tuesday. </s> |
3,504 | <s>[INST] Samuel Berger, national security adviser, said the US had an enormous strategic [/INST] stake in Russia, and it was important to demonstrate the US would not turn away from Russia in times of difficulty. </s> |
3,505 | <s>[INST] Meanwhile the International Monetary Fund said it had [/INST] not ruled out providing planned finance for Russia but it depended on government action. </s> |
3,506 | <s>[INST] Full text: Russian president Boris Yeltsin last night defiantly declared he [/INST] would serve out the rest of his elected term of office, rebuffing pressure to stand down before June 2000. </s> |
3,507 | <s>[INST] "I am not going to resign, [/INST] I am going to work," he said on television. </s> |
3,508 | <s>[INST] "As is laid down according to the constitutional term, in [/INST] 2000 a new president will be elected and I will not take part in that presidential election". </s> |
3,509 | <s>[INST] Mr Yeltsin's comments came as Victor Chernomyrdin, acting prime minister, scrambled to put [/INST] together a coherent economic programme to tackle Russia's deepening crisis and to win parliamentary backing for his government in a vote on Monday. </s> |
3,510 | <s>[INST] Russia's leading businessmen, the "oligarchs", are lobbying the [/INST] government to put Boris Fyodorov, a prominent reformer, in charge of economic policy. </s> |
3,511 | <s>[INST] They are also behind an invitation [/INST] to Domingo Cavallo, architect of Argentina's financial stabilisation, to advise Moscow. </s> |
3,512 | <s>[INST] US President Bill Clinton yesterday decided to [/INST] go ahead with his planned visit to Moscow which starts on Tuesday. </s> |
3,513 | <s>[INST] Samuel Berger, national security adviser, said the US had an enormous strategic [/INST] stake in Russia, and it was important to demonstrate the US would not turn away from Russia in times of difficulty. </s> |
3,514 | <s>[INST] Meanwhile the International Monetary Fund said it had [/INST] not ruled out providing planned finance for Russia but it depended on government action. </s> |
3,515 | <s>[INST] World stock markets continued to [/INST] head lower in response to the Russian crisis. </s> |
3,516 | <s>[INST] Tokyo slipped to a 12-year-low as the Nikkei 225 average [/INST] fell below the 14,000 level, also weighed down by worries that parliament would delay financial restructuring plans. </s> |
3,517 | <s>[INST] European markets fell heavily in early trading [/INST] but most cut their losses by the end of the day. </s> |
3,518 | <s>[INST] The UK's FTSE 100 index was 259 [/INST] points off at one stage but finished 119.1 points down at 5,249.4. </s> |
3,519 | <s>[INST] In New York, the Dow [/INST] Jones Industrial Average closed 114.31 lower at 8,051.68. </s> |
3,520 | <s>[INST] Charles Ryan, a Moscow investment banker who was once Mr Fyodorov's [/INST] business partner, said Russia's big businessmen were backing him out of fear that the mounting turmoil would destroy their financial empires. </s> |
3,521 | <s>[INST] Advisers to Mr Chernomyrdin have been calling [/INST] for the government to adopt a more interventionist approach and to print money. </s> |
3,522 | <s>[INST] Mr Yeltsin, who denied he had in effect handed [/INST] over power to Mr Chernomyrdin, dismissed Anatoly Chubais as his special representative with the international financial institutions. </s> |
3,523 | <s>[INST] In Buenos Aires, a spokesman for Mr Cavallo, who [/INST] leads a small opposition party in Congress, said Mr Cavallo had not received any official approach. </s> |
3,524 | <s>[INST] But an official request from [/INST] Russia would of course be considered seriously". </s> |
3,525 | <s>[INST] Mr Cavallo was the man behind "convertibility", the currency [/INST] board system introduced in 1991 that pegged the Argentine peso to the dollar at one to one. </s> |
3,526 | <s>[INST] Convertibility, along with a sweeping privatisation programme, [/INST] quashed hyperinflation and laid the foundations for renewed economic growth in Argentina. </s> |
3,527 | <s>[INST] In circumstances reminiscent of the Russian [/INST] crisis, Argentina also forcibly restructured its domestic debt in 1989. </s> |
3,528 | <s>[INST] Additional reporting by Stephen Fidler in Washington and Ken Warn in Buenos Aires Reports and analysis, Pages [/INST] 2 & 3; Editorial Comment, Page 10; All bets are off, Page 10; Bonds, Page 12; Currencies, Page 13; Stock markets, Pages 15 & 18; Lex, Page 22; Markets, FT Money Page 2 </s> |
3,529 | <s>[INST] ___ Document 311 of 600 Private equity investors turn [/INST] to Argentina Author: Mandel-Campbell, Andrea Publication info: Financial Times [London (UK)] 31 July 1998: 07. </s> |
3,530 | <s>[INST] accountid=28034 Abstract: Private equity investors are being tempted by [/INST] falling asset values across Latin America, despite the effects of the Asian market crisis on the region. </s> |
3,531 | <s>[INST] In the case of Argentina, relatively [/INST] strong economic fundamentals have added further incentives to invest. </s> |
3,532 | <s>[INST] "Valuations have improved across the region and the fundamentals of [/INST] Argentina are very attractive," said Andrew de Pass, a managing director at Citicorp Equity Capital Latin America. </s> |
3,533 | <s>[INST] The stability of the currency and the economy in [/INST] the face of the Asian crisis was a testament to the success of economic policies, he added. </s> |
3,534 | <s>[INST] Private equity funds represented at a conference in Buenos Aires this week - such as [/INST] the US-based Hicks Muse Tate & Furst and Newbridge Latin America - have invested $5bn-$7bn in Argentina in recent years, buying into family-owned conglomerates, small businesses and government privatisations. </s> |
3,535 | <s>[INST] Full text: Private equity investors are being tempted by [/INST] falling asset values across Latin America, despite the effects of the Asian market crisis on the region. </s> |
3,536 | <s>[INST] In the case of Argentina, relatively [/INST] strong economic fundamentals have added further incentives to invest. </s> |
3,537 | <s>[INST] "Valuations have improved across the region and the fundamentals of [/INST] Argentina are very attractive," said Andrew de Pass, a managing director at Citicorp Equity Capital Latin America. </s> |
3,538 | <s>[INST] The stability of the currency and the economy in [/INST] the face of the Asian crisis was a testament to the success of economic policies, he added. </s> |
3,539 | <s>[INST] Private equity funds represented at a conference in Buenos Aires this week - such as [/INST] the US-based Hicks Muse Tate & Furst and Newbridge Latin America - have invested $5bn-$7bn in Argentina in recent years, buying into family-owned conglomerates, small businesses and government privatisations. </s> |
3,540 | <s>[INST] The funds, which are financed by institutional investors and private family trusts, [/INST] buy into fragmented high-growth sectors for a period of three to seven years before selling to a strategic partner or going public. </s> |
3,541 | <s>[INST] However, private equity investors may find it difficult to obtain the [/INST] projected returns that they seek - upwards of 30 per cent - because of lower prices and a drop in liquidity. </s> |
3,542 | <s>[INST] Bruce Catania, another managing director at Citicorp Equity Capital Latin [/INST] America, said that stock market investors, like mutual funds, had moved away from emerging markets to safer investments. </s> |
3,543 | <s>[INST] "If you are starting up a fund, the [/INST] turbulence in Asia has reduced valuations so you can find assets at more attractive prices. </s> |
3,544 | <s>[INST] On the other hand, if you are looking [/INST] to exit now your multiples are not the same as they once were". </s> |
3,545 | <s>[INST] Goldman, Sachs has also begun stepping up its efforts in the region, [/INST] investing $95m in Argentina in the last few months acquiring stakes in Abolio y Rubio dairy company and a string of shopping centres. </s> |
3,546 | <s>[INST] "The bulk of the Argentine economy operates on a private basis, so if [/INST] you want to diversify your portfolio you must tap into private equity," said Luis Blaquier, vice-president of the investment banking division of Goldman, Sachs. </s> |
3,547 | <s>[INST] At $55bn Argentina's market capitalisation represents 16.7 per cent [/INST] of gross domestic product, with the largest five companies representing more than half that amount. </s> |
3,548 | <s>[INST] But while the stock market has dropped 30 per cent since the [/INST] Asian crisis, economic growth has diminished only slightly to an estimated 6 per cent in 1998, from 8.4 per cent in 1997. </s> |
3,549 | <s>[INST] Private equity investors are also encouraged by Argentina's [/INST] open economy and per capita income of $9,000, the highest in the region. </s> |
3,550 | <s>[INST] "Foreign investment has caused a complete change in the entrepreneurial culture of [/INST] Argentina by providing new technology, new markets and new management," said Alieto Guadagni, secretary of industry, trade and mining, at the conference. </s> |
3,551 | <s>[INST] ___ Document 326 of 600 Fitting a [/INST] financial shock-absorber Economic quick thinking has helped Argentina out of some tricky times. </s> |
3,552 | <s>[INST] But there are other pressures still weighing on the [/INST] country, says Richard Lapper: Author: Lapper, Richard Publication info: Financial Times [London (UK)] 27 July 1998: 01. </s> |
3,553 | <s>[INST] accountid=28034 Abstract: President Carlos Menem, who this month began his [/INST] tenth year as president of Argentina, confronts a set of issues very different from those he faced in 1989. </s> |
3,554 | <s>[INST] Hyperinflation - which threatened to plunge the country into chaos - has been eliminated [/INST] and the government's conservative monetary and fiscal policies enjoy wide support within the political and business establishment and have helped the country withstand instability on international markets. </s> |
3,555 | <s>[INST] However, the economic policy consensus is in [/INST] sharp contrast to the growing controversies surrounding the country's political and judicial institutions. </s> |
3,556 | <s>[INST] The campaign for next year's presidential elections -a campaign which has begun [/INST] unusually early by Argentine standards - has been dominated by a wave of allegations of political malpractice and corruption among judges and officials. </s> |
3,557 | <s>[INST] Prices are expected to grow by 1 per cent this year, an increase on the 0.1 and 0.3 per [/INST] cent achieved in 1996 and 1997, but a far cry from the late 1980s, when shopkeepers sometimes adjusted their prices two or three times a day and average annual inflation rates reached more than 1,000 per cent. </s> |
3,558 | <s>[INST] Tight fiscal management has guaranteed deficits of [/INST] less than 2 per cent of gross domestic product throughout the 1990s. </s> |
3,559 | <s>[INST] Full text: President Carlos Menem, who this month began his [/INST] tenth year as president of Argentina, confronts a set of issues very different from those he faced in 1989. </s> |
3,560 | <s>[INST] Hyperinflation - which threatened to plunge the country into chaos - has been eliminated [/INST] and the government's conservative monetary and fiscal policies enjoy wide support within the political and business establishment and have helped the country withstand instability on international markets. </s> |
3,561 | <s>[INST] However, the economic policy consensus is in [/INST] sharp contrast to the growing controversies surrounding the country's political and judicial institutions. </s> |
3,562 | <s>[INST] The campaign for next year's presidential elections -a campaign which has begun [/INST] unusually early by Argentine standards - has been dominated by a wave of allegations of political malpractice and corruption among judges and officials. </s> |
3,563 | <s>[INST] Mr Menem's decision last week not to seek a third presidential term - [/INST] which would have been against the terms of the constitution - has been welcomed by the opposition and headed off a potential political crisis. </s> |
3,564 | <s>[INST] But there are still concerns in some quarters that institutional weaknesses [/INST] could make Argentina less attractive to foreign investors than other markets and - in the longer term - inhibit economic growth. </s> |
3,565 | <s>[INST] Two of President Menem's reforms have proved [/INST] essential in allowing Argentina to manage pressures stemming from the Asian crisis. </s> |
3,566 | <s>[INST] First, the country's exchange rate regime and [/INST] tight fiscal policy have guaranteed monetary stability and continued low levels of inflation. </s> |
3,567 | <s>[INST] According to its currency board system, the peso and the [/INST] dollar trade at parity and the central bank holds a dollar in reserves for each peso in circulation. </s> |
3,568 | <s>[INST] Prices are expected to grow by 1 per cent this year, an increase on the 0.1 and 0.3 per [/INST] cent achieved in 1996 and 1997, but a far cry from the late 1980s, when shopkeepers sometimes adjusted their prices two or three times a day and average annual inflation rates reached more than 1,000 per cent. </s> |
3,569 | <s>[INST] Tight fiscal management has guaranteed deficits of [/INST] less than 2 per cent of gross domestic product throughout the 1990s. </s> |
3,570 | <s>[INST] The government's response to international pressures - last month public spending [/INST] was cut by $1bn and a number of public works projects frozen - has won plaudits from the private sector. </s> |
3,571 | <s>[INST] Incredibly quick," says Michael Smith, group chief executive of the [/INST] local subsidiary of HSBC, the UK bank which paid some $600m to acquire Banco Roberts last year. </s> |
3,572 | <s>[INST] Second, over the last three years Argentina's financial system has been [/INST] rebuilt and become, in the words of one central bank official, "an absorber rather than an amplifier of financial shocks". </s> |
3,573 | <s>[INST] Financial regulation has been overhauled and the banking [/INST] system has been recapitalised through the entry of many foreign banks into the market. </s> |
3,574 | <s>[INST] When foreign investors last lost confidence in emerging markets in 1995, the [/INST] Argentine banking system lost nearly $8bn of deposits - or nearly 18 per cent of the total - in a matter of weeks. </s> |
3,575 | <s>[INST] Over the past nine months, although the stock market and [/INST] bond prices have fallen sharply in the wake of the crisis in Asia, bank deposits have grown. </s> |
3,576 | <s>[INST] "Fundamentally the banking system has been [/INST] strengthened to prevent a recurrence of what happened [in 1995]. </s> |
3,577 | <s>[INST] The stability resulting from these policies has allowed [/INST] the government to consolidate on the deregulation and privatisation of the early 1990s. </s> |
3,578 | <s>[INST] Although the rate of productivity growth has begun to slow from [/INST] the average of 7.7 per cent between 1991 and 1994, the economy has continued to grow at an impressive rate. </s> |
3,579 | <s>[INST] Overall it expanded by 8.4 per cent [/INST] in 1997, and by a cumulative 52 per cent between 1991 and 1997. </s> |
3,580 | <s>[INST] Growth will slow this year but the economy will [/INST] still expand by more than 5 per cent, according to the most recent independent forecasts. </s> |
3,581 | <s>[INST] GDP per capita has more [/INST] than tripled since 1989 to $9,010 in 1997. </s> |
3,582 | <s>[INST] This affluence is most evident in middle class areas of [/INST] Buenos Aires, where consumer spending is fuelling the growth of US-style shopping malls and heavy investment in leisure facilities. </s> |
3,583 | <s>[INST] Argentina has become a valuable market for cable TV [/INST] companies, with penetration levels the third highest in the world, behind the US and Canada. </s> |
3,584 | <s>[INST] Yet in spite of its economic record, President Menem's government [/INST] is unpopular and in the opinion polls his personal approval rating is stuck at below 20 per cent. </s> |
3,585 | <s>[INST] His party - the Justicialist Party or Peronists [/INST] - is divided and has still to name its candidate for next year's election. </s> |
3,586 | <s>[INST] And the Peronists face a tough challenge from the two main opposition parties - the centrist [/INST] Radicals and the left-wing Frepaso - which united behind the banners of the Alliance last year and scored a convincing victory in mid-term elections for the chamber of deputies. </s> |
3,587 | <s>[INST] The Peronists no longer enjoy [/INST] an absolute majority in the lower house. </s> |
3,588 | <s>[INST] Two main factors explain the increasing support for the opposition: popular anger [/INST] over corruption, particularly in the judicial system; and mounting concern over the fortunes of those excluded from the benefits of economic growth. </s> |
3,589 | <s>[INST] Large-scale corruption has diminished since 1990, as a result of [/INST] the withdrawal of the state from many areas of economic activity, but corruption persists, often at very junior levels. </s> |
3,590 | <s>[INST] Popular unease - reflected in extensive media [/INST] coverage - reflects broader concerns about the efficiency and independence of the judiciary. </s> |
3,591 | <s>[INST] "People in general have the sensation that there is manipulation of [/INST] justice by the government," says Domingo Cavallo, the former economy minister, who has been a particularly ardent critic of the judiciary. </s> |
3,592 | <s>[INST] "It is natural that society [/INST] demands solutions to many problems which were hidden before". </s> |
3,593 | <s>[INST] Fewer Argentines live in poverty than in 1989 but deprivation and the [/INST] rate of unemployment - at 13.2 per cent - are worse than the levels Argentines were used to in the 1960s and 1970s. </s> |
3,594 | <s>[INST] The government has made some [/INST] progress on both fronts in the past 18 months. </s> |
3,595 | <s>[INST] Plans to reduce political influence in the appointment [/INST] and dismissal of judges - originally agreed in 1994 - are being introduced this year. </s> |
3,596 | <s>[INST] Judges will in future be selected, and [/INST] where necessary fired, by an independent body comprising lawyers and academics. </s> |
3,597 | <s>[INST] The unemployment rate has been sharply reduced from the level of 18.4 per cent [/INST] it reached after the 1995 Tequila crisis, in part at least as a result of labour reforms permitting the use of more flexible employment contracts. </s> |
3,598 | <s>[INST] Rosendo Fraga, a political analyst, says that job creation, coupled with the Alliance's [/INST] political successes last year and carefully targeted social assistance programmes, have reduced the level of anti-government mobilisation by the trade unions and the left. </s> |
3,599 | <s>[INST] But their historical affluence means Argentines have [/INST] both higher material and political expectations than many other Latin Americans. </s> |
Subsets and Splits