Macri Increases Argentine Debt by Almost $80 Billion

Argentine politician Alcira Argumendo accused President Mauricio Macri's government of putting the country in debt to the tune of an additional $80 billion.

RELATED: 
Big Money and Lemons Cement Friendship Between Macri and Trump

The sociologist and South Project deputy alleged that, in over 16 months Macri's government have put the country in its worst financial state. "In seven years, the military dictatorship (government) was indebted $40 billion. In a year and four months, Cambiemos (Macri's party) was indebted (almost) $80 billion," wrote Argumendo, via his Twitter account.

Data provided by External Debt Observatory of the Metropolitan University for Education and Labor (UMET) indicate that the indebtedness recorded by the government of Macri reached $78,829 million in almost a year and a half. This figure, according to UMET, exceeds that recorded during the previous civil-military rule in 1976-1983. Macri and his Cambiemos party, the observatory stated, have increased the foreign currency debt to more than $25 billion and raised the overall total since December 2015 to over $80 billion.

Economist Fernanda Vallejos explained that the debt in the Argentine public sector moved up about ten points on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at the end of 2015 and increased to $256 billion during 2016 – 52 percent of the GDP. Vallejos also pointed out that private sector debt rose from US$120 billion, well above that of US$64 billion two years ago.

The economist concluded that the volume and speed of the growth of Argentina's over-indebtedness are "unsustainable" and thus the debt is "unpayable."