Thursday, 22 September 2016

Of growth and globalisation

“FROM Argentina to the World” is the slogan. This month President Mauricio Macri welcomed 1,600 business leaders to Buenos Aires, inviting them to invest in and trade with his country. That marked a big change. During 12 years of rule by Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and her late husband, Néstor Kirchner, Argentina cut itself off from the world, nationalising foreign businesses, curbing imports and severing normal ties with the IMF. The Kirchners once stood up Carly Fiorina, the boss of Hewlett-Packard, an American computer giant, when she went to visit them at the Casa Rosada.

Some countries in Latin America, especially those on the Pacific seaboard, like Mexico, Chile and Peru, never turned their backs on globalisation. Others did. Boosted by record prices for their commodity exports, they turned inward and subjected their economies to state controls, repeating on a smaller scale the model that failed the region in the 1970s.

Mr Macri’s initiative is not the only sign of a renewed desire to connect with the world. Brazil’s congress is poised to roll back a law that gave Petrobras, the state-controlled oil company, a monopoly over...Continue reading

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