Argentine president ditching dollars to buy pesos
Jun 7, 2012, 2:04 AM
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) – Argentina’s president says she’s changing her personal savings from dollars to pesos to set an example for her citizens. And she wants her ministers to do the same.
President Cristina Fernandez says it’s about changing a culture. Argentines are obsessed with buying dollars to shelter their wealth from inflation, which now runs at about 25 percent a year.
Fernandez has declared her net worth to be more than $15 million, and a chunk of that is in dollar-denominated savings. She says it’s more profitable to convert it to Argentine pesos.
Many of her countrymen are betting otherwise. Last year alone, capital flight from Argentina soared to $23 billion as people ditched pesos to buy dollars.
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