Source: WSJ
By: Shane Romig, Dow Jones Newswires
09.10.2010
BUENOS AIRES (Dow Jones)--Argentina is on track to post a strong fiscal and trade surplus and gang buster growth this year will continue on through 2011, Economy Minister Amado Boudou told local business leaders Friday.
"We don't expect any problems in 2011, because the growth that we have this year will carry over into the next," Boudou said.
Argentina's central bank expects gross domestic product--a measure of the economy's overall output of goods and services--to expand between 8.9% and 9.5% this year on the back of private consumption and higher exports to key trading partners Brazil and China. GDP grew just 0.9% last year due to the international financial crisis, according to government data.
The strong growth is fueling increased tax revenue, and Argentina is expected to end the year with a fiscal surplus of about 1.4% of GDP, Boudou said.
Boudou also estimated a year-end trade surplus of over $11 billion.
The government plans to "continue to gently manage the exchange rate" to keep the peso stable relative to the dollar, Boudou said.
The peso closed unchanged at ARS3.948 to the dollar Friday, weakening slightly from Monday's close at ARS3.945. The central bank regularly intervenes in the foreign-exchange market to keep the peso trading within a tight band.
-By Shane Romig, Dow Jones Newswires; 54-11-4103-6738; shane.romig@dowjones.com
(Alberto Messer contributed to this article.)
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