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Argentina, China take correct stimulus measures

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-09-08 15:45

The Argentine and Chinese governments are taking correct stimulus measures by promoting the recovery of the real economy instead of the financial sector, an Argentine economist said Monday.

In an interview with Xinhua, Gustavo Lugones, a trade and development consultant for the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, said China had been using strong stimulus measures in production, investment, consumption and employment. This was the right move to help the economy recover in a healthy way, Lugones believed.

China's stimulus package accounted for over 10 percent of its $3.76trillion GDP of 2008, but the financial sector only got 0.5 percent of the GDP, Lugones explained.

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Argentina was following China's lead. Its planned fiscal stimulus plan was worth 6.4 percent of its GDP, around $326.47 billion in 2008. Argentina's financial sector, however, would only receive 0.9 percent of the GDP, he said.

"Both Argentina and China reacted quickly, energetically and appropriately faced with the world crisis," he added. As a result, the two countries had effectively reduced the impact of the global crisis on their economies, Lugones reasoned.

The economist concluded that both China and Argentina had enjoyed years of fiscal surplus, so they were better-positioned to finance public spending when the crisis came.