Finanzas provinciales argentinas (in english)
Inflation strangles Argentine provincial finances BY ALEJANDRO LIFSCHITZ Santa Cruz province in southern Argentina has major oil and natural gas reserves, promising deposits of gold and silver and a population of barely one person per kilometer. Yet it lives on the verge of bankruptcy. Last month, the local legislature tried to pass an austerity plan that included pension cuts and lay-offs among state employees. The initiative failed when hundreds of angry protesters swarmed the building. Many provinces in Latin America’s No. 3 economy are under pressure as public spending grows faster than revenues. Provincial governments spend most of their resources on salaries, which have risen sharply since 2007, when Argentine inflation began climbing to among the world’s highest rates. It is an explosive cocktail that is undermining local governments’ ability to pay wages, could trigger unrest and eventually threaten mining and energy investments. “In the last three or four months, the num
