News Argentina presses ahead with reforms

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Argentina's President Adolfo Rodriguez Saa moved ahead with a dramatic overhaul of the country's economy Dec. 25.

Saa was voted into power Dec. 24 by Argentine lawmakers after the previous president, Fernando de la Rua, resigned during a bloody, popular uprising Dec. 21.

Immediately after taking power, Rodriguez Saa announced the country would default on its 132-billion-dollar (¥16.77 trillion) public debt and issue a new currency, the argentino, to help create a million jobs.

The Cabinet agreed on the plans to issue a new currency alongside the dollar and peso.

But the argentino would not be convertible, the administration said.

It would be used possibly as soon as this month to pay government salaries, pensions, debts and purchase state supplies, a spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, Carlos Menem, former president of Argentina and current leader of the Peronist party, voiced his opposition to the new currency.

"There is no way to create a new currency," Menem remarked

Argentina, Latin America's third-largest economy, is in its 43rd month of recession and has an unemployment rate of 18.3 percent.

アルゼンチンが経済改革断行へ

流血の大衆ほう起で前政権が退陣したアルゼンチンで、ロドリゲスサア暫定大統領は、経済建て直しのため、思い切った改革を推し進めている。

Shukan ST: Jan. 4, 2002

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