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中国株レポート
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Geography

Argentina is a Federal Republic covering an area of 2,776,889 sq.km. It consists of 22 provinces, a federal district containing the capital Buenos Aires, the national territories of Tierra del Fuego and the Antarctic. To the West, its border with Chile is marked by Andes, while to the north-west and north Argentina adjoins Paraguay, Brazil and Uruguay. Argentina's central regions - the pampas - are highly fertile, while the forests of the North and the Andes contain considerably under exploited resources.

Demography

In 1992, Argentina's population was estimated at 33 million, up from 28.0 million in the census of 1980. Approximately 85% of the population is of European descent, the result of large scale immigration, 35% being of Italian and 25% of Spanish descent together. The 15% that is non-European in origin includes a relatively small number of pure Indians and Mestizos, as well as people of Middle Eastern origin, particularly Lebanese and Syrians.

Argentina is highly urbanised: in 1990, 86 % of the population was urban, compared with 74% in 1960. Greater Buenos Aires, of which the federal capital is part, has 10.9 million inhabitants, almost a third of the country's total. The three provinces of Santa Fe, Cordoba and Buenos Aires account for half the population. The annual rate of population growth averaged 1.5 % between 1960 and 1990, one of the lowest in Latin America.

In 1990, 30 % of the population was under 15 and the literacy rate was 95 %. The labour force was estimated at 12.8 million. About 45 % of the labour force is employed in commerce and services, including government departments and state owned enterprises, and approximately 25% is self-employed..

History and Political Situation

After the federal government was founded in 1853, a large flow of immigrants and capital (notably British) from Europe rapidly developed the i nfrastructure of Argentina, making it the richest country in Latin America by the early 20th Century.

The major contributor to national wealth was the creation of a successful export trade in agricultural commodities to Western Europe, with the development of ranching and grain production on a large scale, the opening of the interior through the construction of railways, and the conquest of Patagonia.

In the early 20th Century political power was in the hands of a conservative elite. The first mass movement was the Radical Party (Union Civica Radical) who won the 1916 elections after the introduction of secret male suffrage. The Radicals continued to rule until 1930 when a military coup began a new period of conservative rule, initiating a long cycle of military interventions and politicisation of the armed forces. The 1930-43 period was characterised by electoral fraud and the exclusion of the Radicals. A military coup took place in 1943, and led to the rise to power of General Juan Domingo Peron in the 1946 elections. Thus began the era of Peronism, Argentina's second mass movement of this century, which was to last until 1983.

Throughout his political career, General Peron, aided by his charismatic wife, Eva Duarte Peron (Evita), pursued nationalist and populist policies, commencing with large scale intervention in every aspect of the economy and the expansion of the role and privileges of the armed forces. The Peron-inspired constitution of 1953 established that the federal government, and those of the provinces, are based on the separation of executive, legislative and judicial powers. Executive power is vested in a president who is elected by an electoral college for a six year term; the legislature is a bicameral congress, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The Chamber of Deputies has 254 members elected for a term of four years with half of the seats renewed every two years. There are 46 seats in the Senate, the senators being nominated by the provincial legislatures for a term of nine years with one third of the seats renewed every three years. Each province elects its governor and legislature, the provincial governments being financially heavily dependent on the federal government. In 1955 General Peron was overthrown. The subsequent political situation in Argentina was unstable, unsettled by the continuing strength of the Peronists, growing political extremism, the hostility of the armed forces towards the Peronists and rising inflation. In general elections held in 1973 Peron returned to power to face growing political tension and inflationary pressures. After his death in 1974 Argentina was briefly ruled by his widow Isabel Peron until 1976, and then by a military junta returned under General Videla, and briefly President Viola, whose tasks were to curb the rising left wing guerrilla activity and reorganise the economy. In December 1981 Viola was replaced by General Galtieri whose administration came to an abrupt end in July 1982, following the unsuccessful invasion of the Falkland Islands.

Interim administration elections were held in October 1983 and won unexpectedly by the Radical party. Dr. Raul Alfonsin, leader of the Radicals, took office as President in December 1983 with a narrow majority in the Chamber of Deputies. He partly achieved his aim of closing the half century long cycle of military intervention and political instability by building a stable democracy, but was indecisive in implementing tough measures to reform the economy when he had a popular mandate to do so. In the May 1989 elections, President Carlos Menem was elected as the first Peronist president since 1976, and assumed office in July (six months early). Menem followed a dramatic policy, jettisoning campaign talk of large wage increases and other expansionist and redistributive policies for an austerity and stabilisation programme, marked by efforts to cut government spending and introduce privatisation of big companies. In the election of 1991, the Peronists and their allies won most Congress seats and also increased their number of seats in the provincial chambers of deputies.

Economy

The Argentine economy has great strength in agriculture, primarily in beef and grain grown on the fertile pampas in central Argentina. These strengths had been dissipated by forty years of populist and nationalist economic policies, leaving Argentina with a bloated public sector and uncontrolled fiscal deficits and monetary emission at the end of the 1980s. The instability of the domestic economy has prompted many Argentines to move their wealth abroad - flight capital is estimated at up to $50 billion. At the end of the 1980s Argentina had a dual economy: a bankrupt formal economy burdened by high overseas debt service requirements and a reasonably prosperous private sector with high external balances.

The Menem administration began implementing radical economic policies immediately on assuming office in July 1989, inheriting an inflation rate exceeding 100% monthly. Under Nestor Rapanelli, a director of Bunge y Born, a price and wage freeze was agreed, and the exchange rate pegged at 650 Australs to the US dollar. In the autumn, pressure for wage rises to keep up with inflation (then down to 15% monthly) forced private sector employers to concede increases, followed by the public sector. The parallel market Austral collapsed against the dollar, leading to a 54% devaluation, and the due date of internal government debt was deferred for two years.

Rapanelli's successor, Erman Gonzalez announced the elimination of exchange and price controls and promised to eliminate the printing of Austral without backing. In spite of these positive liberalising steps, it was clear that reduction of excessive monetary emission would require resolution of Argentina's fiscal deficit. The failure to address both problems simultaneously was at the root of Argentina's persistent bouts of hyper inflation.

In March 1991 Domingo Erman Gonzalez's successor, froze the Austral at 10,000 = US$ 1 and made the currency fully convertible. He guaranteed not to print money to fund government spending, and the Banco Central may only issue currency when fully backed by foreign exchange reserves. The results of the so-called Convertibility Plan have been good. Wholesale price inflation has dropped from an annual rate of 512% in January 1991 to 25% in 1992. Meanwhile the economy grew at an average 8% in 1991 and 1992, with much lower interest rates and greater consumer confidence preceding a revival in spending. Also firm domestic demand, especially for investment and consumer goods, doubled imports in 1991 and this trend continues. Without the development of new export products and markets and without a domestic long-term institutional saving mechanism it is difficult to imagine how the country can finance the level of investment necessary to raise its growth potential.

The government is continuing its economic liberalisation programme, with the aim of reducing the costs imposed by high production taxes, excessive social contribution levied on wages, and restrictive practices, so as to force Argentine companies to become internationally competitive. Privatisation in the areas of energy, telecommunications and transport is continuing in order to restore state-owned companies to economic viability and halt their drain on the Treasury. President Menem also proposed significant cuts in the civil service and a reduction in central government bureaucracy.

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