Scioli: 'I'd hope not to have to declare BA province under economic emergency'

Buenos Province Governor Daniel Scioli told reporters he "hoped not to have to declare the BA province under economic emergency", before entering a meeting organized by the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA in Spanish).

“We are working with all provincial ministries to solve the situation. We have bonds that can be cashed out in order to meet all payments.”

Scioli’s teams have been lately coordinating courses of action with the national government, the Economy Ministry and the Central Bank in order to see if it’s possible to find new financing options without having to go after an Economic and Financial Emergency law.

Thus, the provincial government’s plan is to sell now some of its BOGAR bonds, whose expiration date is 2018, and are currently held by the Banco Provincia.

The BA province has BOGAR bonds for a total of 6.3 billion pesos, but the plan is to submit into the stock market between 800 million and 1 billion pesos in bonds for sale, which will cover the amount needed to meet the payment of mid-year bonuses.

Only the national government along with the Cental Bank can authorize the selling of national public bonds.

In case the province would have to finally go after an Economic and Finance emergency law, the provincial Economy Minister Silvina Batakis told reporters that the administration led by Scioli “is willing to do all necessary changes in order to make the law passed by the province legislature.”

Likewise, Batakis remarked that “first, we are going to approach all lawmakers as well the Victory Front’s blocs at both Lower and Upper houses in order to reach consensus. Once this is done, then we’ll forward the draft bill to the BA province Legislature.”

Asked if the she had already received any comments from the Kirchnerite lawmakers, Batakis assured: “No, none of them have reached out to me to make any comment on the project”, and added, “But we are here to discuss it and make all necessary changes in order to achieve a consensus law.”

On regards the delay on the mid-year bonus for all BA Province state-workers, Batakis insisted that the provincial government idea is “to pay it as soon as possible”, though for doing so “we’ll first need to obtain extraordinary resources and/or funds.”

If passed, the Economic Emergency declaration would enable Scioli to pay the mid-year bonus in four payments as he wishes, as well to make several public spending cuts.