G20 host Argentina is in a deep economic crisis. The budget deficit rises and rises. Inflation climbed to 20 percent. More and more Argentines are living below the poverty line.
For years, the machines of the “Industrias bracket produce” nothing more. But not because they’re bad, but because there is no more, which puts them in operation. 30 years ago a German couple founded a woodworking shop in San Martín, a suburb of Buenos Aires. In good times the company had up to 12 employees, now only one remains. “A large part of our work in China now, for example, so the benefits come from outside, it is cheaper and they have better conditions than we do,” says the 70-year-old founder Juan Beck.
The German-Argentine entrepreneur Juan Beck
The income of him and his wife, Gertrud, meet after decades of work, just the minimum wage. So the family can survive. To buy “instead of new clothes, we wear the old,” says Gertrude, “my grandson is also sewn a patch on the knee on the pants.”
Less and less to small businesses
The sad fate of Industrias bracket but also the families of former employees. Eduardo García was terminated after 28 years. With 55 years, he is employed by hardly more somewhere. Like many Argentines, he is now as an Uber driver just to make ends meet. “Not only this, but also the previous government has acted against the industry and Small – and medium-sized enterprises, the messengers so far, most of the people work.”
Due to the crisis that many companies, wants to propose to the Argentine industrial Union (UIA), the government’s relief measures. Most urgent is to reduce the tax burden. The high taxes have also resulted in Industrias bracket almost in Ruin. “And the constant devaluation of the Argentine Peso cause of the work, hardly what,” said Juan Beck.
“Out with the IMF and the G20”
Argentina is in a deep economic crisis and is in need of outside assistance: loans from the International monetary Fund (IMF) and the world Bank. However, thousands of citizens have been protesting for months, in the run-up to the G20 summit, held for the first Time in a South American country.
Activist Luciana Ghiotto
The IMF has gripped Argentina in September with a new billion credit under the arms and will also play at this year’s summit an important role. The G20 was originally established to solve the global financial crisis, “but in reality, the summit is no help to anyone,” says Luciana Ghiotto of ATTAC Argentina. Together with other human rights organizations will protest during the first day of the Summit on Friday (30.11). “Argentina is playing the good pupil of the IMF, but the visit of Christine Lagarde and the G20 summit held here in Buenos Aires, many people see as a provocation.”
The protests have been going on for months
With new international agreements to catch up
The government of Macri hopes for the summit, a fresh breeze and attention for the country. New agreements, for example, for the meat export to the USA have already been signed some days before the summit. Miguel brown, Secretary for economic policy, sees the summit as a “great opportunity for tourism”, and believe that Argentina can show as an “honest broker of spaced positions in a very complex global Situation”.
On the streets of Buenos Aires, only a few people believe, however, that the summit could change anything about your Situation. The expenditure for the Meeting are estimated to be around $ 200 million. “The money should rather be invested in education, it would be urgently necessary, ” says the 25-year-old student, Mariana Arboledas, “The only hope is that this summit ends in a huge mess like last year in Hamburg,” she says.