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3,600 | <s>[INST] So the twin challenges of institutional reform and finding ways [/INST] to extend the benefits of market-based reform to Argentina's underprivileged will dominate the agenda of any future government. </s> |
3,601 | <s>[INST] Critics say that more needs to be done to make the legal system [/INST] user-friendly for smaller business and argue that with a more independent judiciary Argentina would be better able to introduce reforms in other areas. </s> |
3,602 | <s>[INST] For Mr Fraga, measures [/INST] to tackle social exclusion are the priority. </s> |
3,603 | <s>[INST] "We need to widen [/INST] the market in social terms," he says. </s> |
3,604 | <s>[INST] "We need to increase the number of Argentines with credit [/INST] cards and pension funds to 80 per cent and deal with the problems of social exclusion with greater rigour". </s> |
3,605 | <s>[INST] ___ Document 328 of 600 THE ECONOMY Unmoved by [/INST] external problems Author: Lapper, Richard Publication info: Financial Times [London (UK)] 27 July 1998: 02. </s> |
3,606 | <s>[INST] accountid=28034 Abstract: Argentina's economy has proved less vulnerable to external pressures [/INST] this year than it was in 1995 when international investors last lost confidence in the prospects of emerging markets. </s> |
3,607 | <s>[INST] But the economy will inevitably be hit by developments in [/INST] Asia and Russia, with weaker commodity prices and higher interest rates adversely affecting prospects for investment and growth. </s> |
3,608 | <s>[INST] Three years ago Argentine savers withdrew some $8bn - or 18 per cent of deposits - from the banking system [/INST] amid fears that the authorities would abandon their currency board exchange rate regime according to which the peso trades at parity with the dollar and the central bank holds one dollar in reserves for every peso in circulation. </s> |
3,609 | <s>[INST] This year - in spite of international uncertainty - deposits have [/INST] continued to grow, reaching $75.5bn by June 30, up 15.5 per cent in the first six months of the year. </s> |
3,610 | <s>[INST] "Deposits keep rising as if nothing had [/INST] happened," says Miguel Kiguel, sub-secretary for finance at the economy ministry. </s> |
3,611 | <s>[INST] "One of the surprising things [/INST] is the strength of the banking system". </s> |
3,612 | <s>[INST] Tougher bank regulation is one [/INST] of the main reasons for the improvement. </s> |
3,613 | <s>[INST] Liquidity ratios have been strengthened from 14 per [/INST] cent of bank deposits in 1994 to the equivalent of roughly 30 per cent today. </s> |
3,614 | <s>[INST] Banks are obliged to hold 20 per cent of their deposits in liquid international [/INST] assets and the central bank is able to call on an additional $7.2bn in funds through the use of an innovative repurchase facility secured with international banks. </s> |
3,615 | <s>[INST] Full text: * by Richard Lapper Unmoved by external problems Waning confidence in emerging markets has not [/INST] sparked panic this time Argentina's economy has proved less vulnerable to external pressures this year than it was in 1995 when international investors last lost confidence in the prospects of emerging markets. </s> |
3,616 | <s>[INST] But the economy will inevitably be hit by developments in [/INST] Asia and Russia, with weaker commodity prices and higher interest rates adversely affecting prospects for investment and growth. </s> |
3,617 | <s>[INST] Three years ago Argentine savers withdrew some $8bn - or 18 per cent of deposits - from the banking system [/INST] amid fears that the authorities would abandon their currency board exchange rate regime according to which the peso trades at parity with the dollar and the central bank holds one dollar in reserves for every peso in circulation. </s> |
3,618 | <s>[INST] This year - in spite of international uncertainty - deposits have [/INST] continued to grow, reaching $75.5bn by June 30, up 15.5 per cent in the first six months of the year. </s> |
3,619 | <s>[INST] "Deposits keep rising as if nothing had [/INST] happened," says Miguel Kiguel, sub-secretary for finance at the economy ministry. </s> |
3,620 | <s>[INST] "One of the surprising things [/INST] is the strength of the banking system". </s> |
3,621 | <s>[INST] Tougher bank regulation is one [/INST] of the main reasons for the improvement. </s> |
3,622 | <s>[INST] Liquidity ratios have been strengthened from 14 per [/INST] cent of bank deposits in 1994 to the equivalent of roughly 30 per cent today. </s> |
3,623 | <s>[INST] Banks are obliged to hold 20 per cent of their deposits in liquid international [/INST] assets and the central bank is able to call on an additional $7.2bn in funds through the use of an innovative repurchase facility secured with international banks. </s> |
3,624 | <s>[INST] Additionally, the entry of international banks such as Banco Santander and Banco [/INST] Bilbao Vizcaya of Spain and the UK's HSBC has strengthened the system's capital base and shored up the confidence of customers. </s> |
3,625 | <s>[INST] Argentina's exchange rate regime - the peso has been tied at parity to the [/INST] dollar since 1991 - does leave the country potentially very exposed to devaluation by its trading partners, especially Brazil, which buys 30 per cent of Argentine exports. </s> |
3,626 | <s>[INST] But central bank officials play down any potential problems, [/INST] arguing that the failure to develop exports more rapidly has proved to be ablessing in disguise. </s> |
3,627 | <s>[INST] Exports overall account for [/INST] only about 8 per cent of GDP. </s> |
3,628 | <s>[INST] In addition, more than 60 per cent of exports to Brazil are internationally traded [/INST] commodities which means that the effect of any change in Brazil's currency regime would be largely limited to a few categories of manufactured goods such as motors. </s> |
3,629 | <s>[INST] Nonetheless, Argentina has been [/INST] affected by developments on the international markets. </s> |
3,630 | <s>[INST] Lower commodity prices have undermined the prospects [/INST] of sectors which have contributed to growth in the last two years. </s> |
3,631 | <s>[INST] Reductions in wheat and soya [/INST] prices have offset the benefits of strong harvests. </s> |
3,632 | <s>[INST] Revenues from oil - which have [/INST] risen for seven successive years - will stagnate this year. </s> |
3,633 | <s>[INST] Steep falls in copper and other mineral prices will cut revenues from the [/INST] Bajo de la Alumbrera copper and gold mines which came on stream last year - and delay other investments in the country's renascent mining sector. </s> |
3,634 | <s>[INST] Overall export revenues fell by 14.7 per cent in the first quarter compared [/INST] with the same period last year and economists expect the overall total to be only marginally higher than the $25.2bn achieved in 1997. </s> |
3,635 | <s>[INST] With imports rising, Argentina will register a trade deficit nearly twice the size [/INST] of the $3.2bn of 1997, while the current account gap will widen to 14.2 per cent of GDP, according to private sector forecasts. </s> |
3,636 | <s>[INST] Economists argue that the higher external deficit will choke the [/INST] growth of imports, particularly of capital goods which accounted for 43.7 per cent of the total in 1997. </s> |
3,637 | <s>[INST] Debora Giorgi, an economist with Alpha, an independent Buenos Aires consultancy, forecasts [/INST] that new investment will grow at only 11.3 per cent this year, compared with a rate of 27.1 per cent in 1997. </s> |
3,638 | <s>[INST] Argentina's greatest exposure to events [/INST] in Asia, however, is through higher interest rates. </s> |
3,639 | <s>[INST] Already falls in Argentine bond prices in [/INST] the secondary market are increasing the cost of raising new debt. </s> |
3,640 | <s>[INST] The government has an external financing requirement this year of some [/INST] $17.4bn including the roll-over of short-term debt, says Mr Kiguel, and international investors are demanding higher rates than last year. </s> |
3,641 | <s>[INST] The premium charged by investors for holding Argentina's benchmark 30-year bond, compared with [/INST] low-risk instruments such as US Treasury bonds, rose by 1.74 per cent between the end of September last year and the end of last month. </s> |
3,642 | <s>[INST] According to Mr Kiguel, the average spread on new [/INST] debt contracted during 1998 has risen to 3.70 percentage points, compared with 2.50 percentage points during 1997. </s> |
3,643 | <s>[INST] And with investors less prepared to lend over the longer [/INST] term, maturities of the new obligations have fallen from 8.7 years in 1997 to five years in 1998. </s> |
3,644 | <s>[INST] In addition Argentina has been forced to go [/INST] to the markets more frequently to raise the funds required as existing loans mature. </s> |
3,645 | <s>[INST] In the first five months of the year interest payments on public debt [/INST] amounted to $2.92bn (14 per cent of all other spending), compared with $5.8bn (11.7 per cent of spending) for the whole of 1997. </s> |
3,646 | <s>[INST] The prospect of further rises in interest rates, following the bout of instability [/INST] in Japan and Russia in May, led the government to cut public spending by $1bn and suspend a number of high-profile public works projects. </s> |
3,647 | <s>[INST] The announcements were welcomed by investors but will further hamper growth, which - according to [/INST] private forecasts - is expected to fall to 5.6 per cent this year, although the rate could decline to between 3 and 4 per cent by the final quarter. </s> |
3,648 | <s>[INST] Critics argue that a bigger problem for [/INST] Argentina is a longer-term decline in the rate of productivity growth. </s> |
3,649 | <s>[INST] According to Ms Giorgi, during the period between 1991 and 1994, the productivity [/INST] of the Argentine economy grew by an average of 7.7 per cent a year, reflecting in particular sharp falls in financial and energy costs. </s> |
3,650 | <s>[INST] The rise was notably strong in manufacturing, with [/INST] productivity increasing by 16.7 per cent each year in the steel industry, for example. </s> |
3,651 | <s>[INST] Subsequently, however, the slowdown in structural reform and the strength of the dollar (which weakened by 2.6 per [/INST] cent against the D-Mark in the 1991-1994 period but strengthened by 8.6 per cent in the subsequent three years), has slowed productivity growth to an average of only 1.8 per cent a year. </s> |
3,652 | <s>[INST] ___ Document 332 of 600 DIPLOMATIC AND TRADE RELATIONS Old [/INST] maverick steps into line Author: Warn, Ken Publication info: Financial Times [London (UK)] 27 July 1998: 03. </s> |
3,653 | <s>[INST] accountid=28034 Abstract: President Carlos Menem's planned visit to London at the [/INST] end of October is a powerful illustration of the revolution in Argentine foreign policy that has taken place since 1989. </s> |
3,654 | <s>[INST] Argentina has ditched its maverick stance and non-aligned [/INST] rhetoric to forge strong ties with the US, neighbouring countries and the European Union. </s> |
3,655 | <s>[INST] With 400 troops in Cyprus, 120 in Haiti and [/INST] 900 in Bosnia, Argentina is the most active Latin American country in United Nations peacekeeping operations. </s> |
3,656 | <s>[INST] It was the only Latin American nation to participate in [/INST] the 1991 Gulf War, and this February stood ready to participate in a fresh US-led strike against Iraq. </s> |
3,657 | <s>[INST] Last year, Argentina won its reward when [/INST] Washington approved its claim to be designated as special non-Nato ally. </s> |
3,658 | <s>[INST] The move has already boosted co-operation in [/INST] areas such as training and could give Argentina access to surplus Nato hardware. </s> |
3,659 | <s>[INST] It may also help win US congressional [/INST] approval for purchases of US weaponry by Argentina's cash-strapped armed forces. </s> |
3,660 | <s>[INST] Full text: * by Ken Warn Old maverick steps into line Locals say ties with the US and [/INST] Europe are becoming closer than ever President Carlos Menem's planned visit to London at the end of October is a powerful illustration of the revolution in Argentine foreign policy that has taken place since 1989. </s> |
3,661 | <s>[INST] Argentina has ditched its maverick stance and non-aligned [/INST] rhetoric to forge strong ties with the US, neighbouring countries and the European Union. </s> |
3,662 | <s>[INST] It has even put its territorial dispute with Britain [/INST] to one side under a special negotiating "umbrella" in the pursuit of normal trade and diplomatic relations. </s> |
3,663 | <s>[INST] The two countries fought a bloody war [/INST] in 1982 over the disputed Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. </s> |
3,664 | <s>[INST] Ties with Washington, once marked by mutual suspicion, [/INST] have since become "carnal relations", in the phrase of foreign minister Guido Di Tella. </s> |
3,665 | <s>[INST] "The change in foreign policy came before, and is at least [/INST] as profound as the economic reforms of the Menem government," says Carlos Helbling, an economic and foreign affairs analyst. </s> |
3,666 | <s>[INST] With 400 troops in Cyprus, 120 in Haiti and [/INST] 900 in Bosnia, Argentina is the most active Latin American country in United Nations peacekeeping operations. </s> |
3,667 | <s>[INST] It was the only Latin American nation to participate in [/INST] the 1991 Gulf War, and this February stood ready to participate in a fresh US-led strike against Iraq. </s> |
3,668 | <s>[INST] Last year, Argentina won its reward when [/INST] Washington approved its claim to be designated as special non-Nato ally. </s> |
3,669 | <s>[INST] The move has already boosted co-operation in [/INST] areas such as training and could give Argentina access to surplus Nato hardware. </s> |
3,670 | <s>[INST] It may also help win US congressional [/INST] approval for purchases of US weaponry by Argentina's cash-strapped armed forces. </s> |
3,671 | <s>[INST] "Special non-Nato ally status is largely symbolic, but it does [/INST] indicate how well the relationship with Washington is going," says Diego Guilar, Argentina's ambassador to the US. </s> |
3,672 | <s>[INST] Symbolic or no, the move drew criticism from [/INST] neighbouring Chile and Brazil, who claimed it could upset the regional balance of power. </s> |
3,673 | <s>[INST] Nowhere is the changed dynamic of [/INST] Argentina's foreign relations more apparent than in international trade negotiations. </s> |
3,674 | <s>[INST] Forthcoming trade talk commitments are so great [/INST] that Argentina is at serious risk of running out of experienced trade negotiators. </s> |
3,675 | <s>[INST] Argentina is committed to: * Talks aimed at deepening Mercosur, [/INST] the customs union which also includes Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, with Chile and Bolivia as associate members. </s> |
3,676 | <s>[INST] Argentina's trade with Brazil has soared since [/INST] the formation of Mercosur, and Brazil takes almost a third of its exports. </s> |
3,677 | <s>[INST] * Moving towards more co-ordination of regional [/INST] economic policies, This is the main task ahead, according to Argentine negotiators. </s> |
3,678 | <s>[INST] Mercosur partners are still prone to act as [/INST] sovereign states first, and members of an emerging economic block a distant second. </s> |
3,679 | <s>[INST] However, moves to create a common Mercosur currency, [/INST] heavily promoted by Mr Menem and Argentine officials, have been stifled by Mercosur partners. </s> |
3,680 | <s>[INST] * Forging a free trade agreement between Mercosur and the [/INST] Andean Pact - an older trade grouping which comprises Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia - by 2000. </s> |
3,681 | <s>[INST] * Participation in President Bill Clinton's ambitious [/INST] project to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas by 2005. </s> |
3,682 | <s>[INST] The FTAA would create a market [/INST] of some 800m people and a value of $10,000bn. </s> |
3,683 | <s>[INST] Formal trade negotiations between the EU and Mercosur are expected to [/INST] begin next year, possibly kicking off at the Rio Summit which will bring together EU and Latin American heads of state. </s> |
3,684 | <s>[INST] * Backing the Millennium Round of [/INST] trade negotiations under the auspices of the World Trade Organisation. </s> |
3,685 | <s>[INST] The round, originally proposed by EU trade commissioner Sir Leon [/INST] Brittan, would follow on from the successful 1986-93 Uruguay Round and tackle remaining industrial tariff, investment and competition issues. </s> |
3,686 | <s>[INST] On the bilateral front, some Argentine officials believe they [/INST] can work successfully with Britain to push forward a broad trade liberalisation agenda in international negotiations. </s> |
3,687 | <s>[INST] Underpinning Buenos Aires' trade agenda are improved [/INST] market access for Argentina's agricultural exports and the dismantling of agricultural subsidies. </s> |
3,688 | <s>[INST] Argentina's commitment to Mercosur has only been enhanced [/INST] by Mr Clinton's failure to secure fast-track negotiating authority from Congress for the FTAA process. </s> |
3,689 | <s>[INST] Detailed talks on creating the FTAA [/INST] got off to a gruelling start in Buenos Aires last month. </s> |
3,690 | <s>[INST] However, the negotiating committee of vice-ministers of 34 countries of the Americas [/INST] (excluding Cuba) agreed guidelines for the nine working groups which will thrash out the details of the deal, starting in Miami in September. </s> |
3,691 | <s>[INST] Argentina and Brazil saw off a US-led initiative to allow [/INST] for early implementation of any aspects of the FTAA accord that could be reached before the 2005 deadline. </s> |
3,692 | <s>[INST] Argentina has also warned the US bluntly [/INST] that the absence of fast-track would soon start to impact on the talks. </s> |
3,693 | <s>[INST] "If we don't have fast-track by the end of [/INST] this year or early next, the process will begin to stall," says Mr Di Tella. </s> |
3,694 | <s>[INST] In this context, lingering US hopes of picking off Mercosur [/INST] members one by one, rather than negotiating with a united and confident regional grouping, look difficult to achieve. </s> |
3,695 | <s>[INST] But Mercosur will negotiate the FTAA [/INST] as a block," says Jorge Campbell, secretary for international economic relations. </s> |
3,696 | <s>[INST] ___ Document 333 of 600 MINING Tarnished metals regain [/INST] some of their shine Author: Warn, Ken Publication info: Financial Times [London (UK)] 27 July 1998: 04. </s> |
3,697 | <s>[INST] accountid=28034 Abstract: A simmering dispute over royalties, low international metals prices and a [/INST] slowdown in exploration have taken much of the shine off Argentina's mining boom, which began after the government started revamping its mining laws in 1993. </s> |
3,698 | <s>[INST] However, the industry is still gaining momentum after decades of neglect, with [/INST] large projects, such as the $1.2bn Bajo de la Alumbrera opencast copper and gold mines in Catamarca province, coming on stream. </s> |
3,699 | <s>[INST] Alumbrera, which began production last October, will be the world's ninth-biggest [/INST] copper mine and 14th-biggest gold mine by 2000, according to owners MIM Holdings and North, of Australia, and Canada's Rio Algom. </s> |
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