Argentina Economic Statistics

Silvia Andreoletti

Silvia is an intern at Trade Finance Global. She is currently finishing her BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at New College, Oxford, with a focus on financial markets, game theory, and international relations.

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Exporting to Argentina

Argentina is one of the largest economies in Latin America, with a highly skilled workforce and sometimes unstable politics. Argentina’s main imports are oil and gas, motor vehicles, machinery, and technological equipment. Its main import sources are China, Brazil, the US, and Germany. Argentina has a resilient economy and a government which is committed to strengthening the country’s macroeconomic outlook. However, growth has been lower than expected in recent years, and even when GDP seems to be rising, other indicators such as inflation and poverty rates remain high. 

Argentina’s economy is relatively closed to trade, as the government has tried to preserve its falling foreign exchange reserves by imposing import restrictions and heavy regulatory burdens on imported goods. These can cause long delays, which are sometimes worsened by difficulty in accessing the official foreign exchange market to pay for exports in dollars. Import restrictions, both official and non-tariff barriers, are unlikely to decrease until the economic situation improves. Currently, the government is struggling to rein in high inflation, and state debt is rising; public confidence is low, and worsened by the wide gap between official and actual exchange rates. A proposed policy of dollarisation, championed by the new president elected in 2023, could stabilise prices and make importing a smoother process, but may come at the cost of uncompetitive exports. 

Buenos Aires, the capital, houses the largest port in South America and is home to almost half of Argentina’s population. The port is a crucial trade hub in the continent, receiving consumer goods and machinery from all over the world for distribution across Latin America. It was privatised in 1994 and has seen much infrastructural investment since then, which is likely to continue and make imports smoother and reduce delays. 

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