Argentina is a first world South American nation that is working to recover from a period of hyperinflation and government default through newly implemented austerity measures. Political transition and increased defense spending have shown signs of positive development in the Argentine economy over the past nine months. Despite these positive changes, political transition, economic austerity measures, and decreased real defense spending are driving instability within Argentina and threaten to destabilize the region.
Political transition as a product of public democratic will has driven most of the changes within the last six months in Argentina. In November 2015, President Mauricio Macri won the second round runoff general election against Daniel Scioli. Scioli, the governor of the province of Buenos Aires, was viewed as the successor to Argentina’s previous president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Macri’s election was a referendum by Argentinian citizens against the populist policies of Fernandez and her apparent successor Scioli. In 2012, …show more content…
As of 2015, military spending rose to .87% of Argentina’s GDP, up from .66% in 2011. Over the last fifteen years, Argentina’s military has languished under the weight of economic depression and a limited budget. This has caused Argentina’s military to fall behind globally on research and development, procurement, and training. The new Macri regime, despite austerity measures, plans to continue to increase military spending with a planned goal of 1.5% of GDP. However, due to high inflation rates and the poor spending power of the Argentine peso versus the American dollar, real spending on defense is on track to decrease in 2016 by .04%. Argentina is increasing its military spending after decades of record low defense spending, however, inflation leaves them unable to grow their defense budget at the nominal level they had
Political transition as a product of public democratic will has driven most of the changes within the last six months in Argentina. In November 2015, President Mauricio Macri won the second round runoff general election against Daniel Scioli. Scioli, the governor of the province of Buenos Aires, was viewed as the successor to Argentina’s previous president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Macri’s election was a referendum by Argentinian citizens against the populist policies of Fernandez and her apparent successor Scioli. In 2012, …show more content…
As of 2015, military spending rose to .87% of Argentina’s GDP, up from .66% in 2011. Over the last fifteen years, Argentina’s military has languished under the weight of economic depression and a limited budget. This has caused Argentina’s military to fall behind globally on research and development, procurement, and training. The new Macri regime, despite austerity measures, plans to continue to increase military spending with a planned goal of 1.5% of GDP. However, due to high inflation rates and the poor spending power of the Argentine peso versus the American dollar, real spending on defense is on track to decrease in 2016 by .04%. Argentina is increasing its military spending after decades of record low defense spending, however, inflation leaves them unable to grow their defense budget at the nominal level they had