BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentina’s ultra-nationalist presidential candidate Javier Miley will need time to implement his campaign promises to scrap the peso and cut taxes on grain if he wins the election, advisers told Reuters. He can avoid congressional hurdles by using executive decrees.
Ramiro Mara, part of Miley’s inner circle and his party’s candidate for mayor of Buenos Aires, said Miley – who scored a surprise victory in the primary this month – would convert the economy to dollars within two years and aims to eliminate taxes on the mega-city. The agricultural sector, if elected.
He added, however, that voters in favor of Miley, who describes himself as a libertarian and political outsider who has made a name for himself as a TV analyst, should be realistic that his proposals will take some time.
“We must understand that the administration’s proposals do not come with magic,” Mara told Reuters in an interview at the Buenos Aires office of his investment company, Bull Market Brokers, adding that the winner of the October 22 elections, or most likely, is the winner. November Runoff – You face ‘difficult months’ ahead.
Juan Napoli, who is also running for a Senate seat with Maili’s party, agreed that time was needed to lay the groundwork for reforms.
Mara said dollarization would take nine months to two years to become a reality, while refusing to give a timeframe for getting rid of taxes on grain exports, the country’s main economic engine, though he said doing so was “our goal”.
“We believe that we should move away from the agricultural sector,” he said, noting “the shortcomings resulting from direct and indirect taxation” on the sector. He cited Chile’s free market model as an inspiration.
Miley’s proposals resonated with voters reeling from 113% annual inflation and weak economic growth, with many angered by the traditional political forces: the ruling left-leaning Peronist bloc and the Together for Conservative Change coalition.
Poverty affects nearly four in 10 people, the benchmark interest rate has risen to 118%, foreign exchange reserves have dried up, and strict capital controls have given rise to a raft of parallel currency exchange markets.
Miley won 30% of the vote in an open primary this month, ahead of the Peronist coalition with 27% and the conservative opposition with 28%. The two presidential candidates for the two blocs will be Economy Minister Sergio Massa and former Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, respectively.
Although Miley is unlikely to secure a majority in Congress even if he wins the presidency, Mara said the goal will be to “sow the seeds” of a long-term economic recovery, adding that the party will look for ways to bypass any opposition from Congress.
This could include referendums or executive decrees, he added. “We will use all the alternatives stipulated in the law and the national constitution,” he added.
(Reporting by Anna Catherine Brigida) (Reporting by Eliana Raszewski and Juan Bustamante) Editing by Rosalba O’Brien
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