CFK bashes media:'There's no such thing as dollar clamp'

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner denied the existence of restrictions over the purchase of dollars by explaining that “Argentina has already paid 79.8 billion dollars so far this year”, during the announcement of a series of bank loans granted to small and medium sized companies, today at the Government House.

With the presence of local entrepreneurs who were granted with low-rate loans, the Head of State also announced that “so far this year Argentina’s trade surplus has reached to over 10 billion dollars, which represents a 38 percent year-on-year growth.”

Likewise, Fernández de Kirchner referred to the ongoing arbitrary dollar restriction policies led by the President, the Central Bank and the AFIP tax agency, which constitutional law experts considered as a violation of the Constitution, and bashed the media and the opposition for calling it “a clamp”.

They have all the right in the world to protest and dislike the monetary policies the government is implementing, but they should stop calling it “clamp” and start looking for another name.”

“So far we have paid 47.9 billion dollars in imports this year; and 11.2 billion dollars just to meet international debt payments. Plus, 5.4 billion dollars were gone overseas on tourist packages; and so on. In total, and since January, Argentina has paid 79.8 billion dollars, so there is no way that we could accept the media saying that there’s a “dollar clamp.”