Scary Argentine Budget!

[EdRooney]

Gold stars for Baexpats Urban Achievers who can pick up the difference between these two articles from today's papers:

Clarín: Fiscal Deficit Increases: It was ARS $20.799 billion in [October]

Ámbito Financero: October Closed with a Deficit of Over ARS $15 Billion

Before y'all anxiously fill in your answers, I would like to make one subsidiary point on a very common error made by both papers: media sources regularly throw out Huge Scary Numbers like this without any context whatsoever. Sure $20 billion sounds like a huge number, but how many readers can actually put those huge numbers in the context of Argentina's GDP? It could be 20 million or 20 trillion, and no one would know the difference. This is why newspapers should put these figures in percentages of GDP instead of just barfing out big numbers that no one can understand.

So to figure out if we should be worried, try filling in these blanks:

Per Clarín, the fiscal deficit could be USD $20 billion. If this is true, Argentina's debt as a % of GDP would be _____%.

The average world debt/GDP is ____%

Japan has a debt/GDP of ____%



Whatever the reason for the discrepancy (you make the call!), I give both papers a FAIL.

 

[lamarque]

First time i actually see someone in this forum grasping the reality of the issue here. The true at the end of the day is that Kristina miente (lie) but clarin as well and both of them lie in terrible ways. The problem of argentina is not so much the debt level, the problem is the inability to get money from outside, we are out of the finantial sistem, so even the smaller deficit could cause a problem, while in other countrys that would not be a problem.

About the article you mention, the deficit that clarin mention is in pesos not in dollars

20 billons pesos / 5193.5 billon peso of gdp = 0.3% represent that deficit

 

[sesamosinsal]

Well, there are some mistakes and some translation errors here. Clarin writes 20 million ARS, not billion. Ambito says 15 billion in its headline, and then later writes 15 million in the body of the article.

Journalism here is atrocious. What's even worse is to hear everyone in Argentina regurgitating everything the media say at dinners and gatherings...

 

[lamarque]

20 millons? that is directly nothing for a country, is even a big mistake for them

 

[EdRooney]

Lamarque: I converted Clarín's ARS 170 billion figure into USD (= 20b) so as to compare it with global statistics.
Also, I'm no fan of Clarín, but there is no obvious lie here, so "Clarín Miente" doesnt really apply... it's just a distortion (hint: the 2 papers are using different stats)

Brad: the Clarín headline says "$ 20.799,3 millones". That's 20,799.3 millions, or 20.7993 billion in the Queen's English. Same is true in Ámbito: don't forget to switch your comas for periods when translating numbers!

But I totally agree about journalism being atrocious. Still, the reason why so many dinner conversations are misinformed is that we have a press that utterly fails in its duty to inform.

 

[sesamosinsal]

Brad: the Clarín headline says "$ 20.799,3 millones". That's 20,799.3 millions, or 20.7993 billion in the Queen's English. Same is true in Ámbito: don't forget to switch your comas for periods when translating numbers!

Oops! I wrote that before the coffee.

 

[Somewhereinba]

Japan has a debt/GDP of ____%

I'll take Japan's economy and payment in yen over Argentina's economy with payment in pesos which is equivalent to toilet paper once you cross an international border - gracias.

 

[Pensador]

Lamarque: I converted Clarín's ARS 170 billion figure into USD (= 20b) so as to compare it with global statistics.
Also, I'm no fan of Clarín, but there is no obvious lie here, so "Clarín Miente" doesnt really apply... it's just a distortion (hint: the 2 papers are using different stats)

Brad: the Clarín headline says "$ 20.799,3 millones". That's 20,799.3 millions, or 20.7993 billion in the Queen's English. Same is true in Ámbito: don't forget to switch your comas for periods when translating numbers!

But I totally agree about journalism being atrocious. Still, the reason why so many dinner conversations are misinformed is that we have a press that utterly fails in its duty to inform.

And just think, right now some Wall Street Journal or Business Week writer is probably going over those articles as if the information was factual getting ready to write another doomsday story about Argentina's default for Monday morning and publish that up North.

 

[sesamosinsal]

I'll take Japan's economy and payment in yen over Argentina's economy with payment in pesos which is equivalent to toilet paper once you cross an international border - gracias.

Clearly you're not aware of the Bank of Japan's intentions to turn the yen into toilet paper.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abenomics

 

[sesamosinsal]

Evidently using old bank notes as toilet paper is such a waste...

http://www.telegraph...ad-of-coal.html

A tonne of blazing banknotes can help contribute 660 kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy and generates far less pollution than the fossil fuel traditionally used –a bonus in a country notorious for smog in its cities.