The Argentine Great Depression was an economic depression in Argentina which began in 1998 and lasted until 2002. This depression began due to the Brazilian and Russian financial crises. Among many more, this crisis caused the fall of the government, riots, unemployment and defaults on the country's debt payment to the IMF. During this time, Argentina’s economy shrank by 28 percent from 1998 to 2002.More than 60 percent of Argentines were poor and seven out of ten children in Argentina were poor at the peak of the crisis in 2002.
Conway (2004) stated that:
In a report published by its independent evaluation office, the IMF said it ought to have prevented the Argentine government from following poor economic policies. IMF surveillance failed to highlight the growing vulnerabilities in the authorities' choice of policies and the IMF erred by supporting inadequate policies too long. The financial meltdown that reached a climax in 2001, causing the country to default on $132 billion of foreign debt, was worsened by the government's vain attempts to maintain the Argentine peso's peg against the dollar. The IMF ploughed money into the country to help it sustain the peg, pledging an extra $22 billion as late as the end of 2000 …show more content…
Real wages fell 35 percent, while about 60 percent of the population ended up living below the poverty line. The IMF compounded the debt problem by making new loans which the Argentina government could not be expected to repay since the country was by then in the midst of a severe
Conway (2004) stated that:
In a report published by its independent evaluation office, the IMF said it ought to have prevented the Argentine government from following poor economic policies. IMF surveillance failed to highlight the growing vulnerabilities in the authorities' choice of policies and the IMF erred by supporting inadequate policies too long. The financial meltdown that reached a climax in 2001, causing the country to default on $132 billion of foreign debt, was worsened by the government's vain attempts to maintain the Argentine peso's peg against the dollar. The IMF ploughed money into the country to help it sustain the peg, pledging an extra $22 billion as late as the end of 2000 …show more content…
Real wages fell 35 percent, while about 60 percent of the population ended up living below the poverty line. The IMF compounded the debt problem by making new loans which the Argentina government could not be expected to repay since the country was by then in the midst of a severe