Diana Mondino: “Argentina could do worse, like Syria or Lebanon.”

EL CRONISTA: Economist Diana Mondino issued a strong warning about the pace of the Argentine economy, noting that “it is imploding” and could even lead to a “worse” scenario, such as in Syria or Lebanon.

The economy is imploding, we are melting as a country. Restrictions on imports, for example, are paralyzing the production line of companies large and small”, she remarked in dialogue with Radio Rivadavia.

According to Mondino, who according to Ejes de Comunicación ranked eighth as the economist most listened to by Argentines in 2021, the worst “has not happened yet.”

You can always be worse. Look at countries like Syria or Lebanon. They are countries where the GDP is not zero either and people continue to live very poorly,” she pointed out.

In this sense and by focusing on the factors that could “implode”, he insisted: “The worst thing would be an increase in inflation and unemployment, which we would easily see.”

We have again had death due to child malnutrition in urban centers that we did not have before. So all of this, when you realize it, is going to be a more critical situation because it is not reversible,” she continued.

CRITICISM OF IFE 5 AND THE BUDGET FOR 2023

For Mondino, the new ANSES Food Reinforcement Bonus implies an additional expense that “we are all paying together“, something that “should not continue“.

This type of assistance should not be continued as a matter of human dignity and what a person can do for themselves to fulfill themselves, in addition to the fact that a society cannot continue to live off a small amount of work,” he emphasized.

When consulted about the 2023 Budget, approved last Tuesday by the Chamber of Deputies, the economist considered that “it must be an authorization of expenses“, something that translates, according to her, into the phrase “you can spend on whatever you want ”.

In the Budget you have to establish priorities, it is not enough for everything because you have to go out and find where to finance it later and that implies a greater deficit”, she warned before remarking that “it has to be logical”.