Economists in Argentina are calling recent remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump about the people there struggling and hungry to be uninformed and nonsense.
23 In Argentina, the words of U.S. President Donald Trump still echo.
« They are fighting for their life, they don’t have money, they are fighting with all their might to survive », Trump told reporters traveling with him aboard Air Force One between Florida and Washington on Monday.
His remarks came in the context of the financial support that the U.S. Treasury approved this week for Argentina — a $20 billion currency swap — and the announcement that the United States would purchase Argentine beef as a way to lower meat prices domestically.
Trump’s statements surprised many in the South American country, including several Argentine economists.
« His words show a lack of understanding of Argentina’s economy. We’ve been in an economic crisis for a long time. Argentina isn’t a developed country, but it’s not a poor one, either », Guido Zack, director of economics at the Fundar think tank, told UPI.
Zack added that Argentina faces a serious political crisis and deep social divisions that hinder agreement on economic policy. This stagnation, Zack said, has worsened economic, productive and social indicators, but the reality is far from the catastrophe Trump described.
« It’s not a country without food, without money or one that is starving », he said.
Trump’s comments are nonsense, said Gustavo Ludmer, an economist at the University of San Andrés. He « isn’t well informed about what’s happening in Argentina. He supports [President Javier] Milei, but doesn’t understand why he wants to keep the dollar cheaper », said Gustavo Ludmer, an economist at the University of San Andrés.
