Brazil-Argentina summit to focus on trade, economic integration
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Loading... - Emerald Murphy
- 24 Jan 2023
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Brazilian President Lula da Silva and Argentinian counterpart Fernandez are looking into a common currency.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has arrived in Argentina for a summit where the two countries will work to foster stronger trade ties.
Lula’s arrival Monday came after he and Argentine leader Alberto Fernandez had published a joint article saying their aim for greater economic integration included studies of a common South American currency.
Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad played down the idea of a single shared currency between Argentina and Brazil, saying late on Sunday that the countries were looking at ways to stimulate bilateral trade but not extinguish their own currencies.
Haddad, who had floated the possibility of a common currency in an article last year, said removing trade barriers between the two largest economies in South America could involve using a single currency for commerce, given a lack of United States dollars in Argentina. But that does not spell the end of the Brazilian real, he said.
“Trade is really bad and the problem is precisely the foreign currency, right? So we are trying to find a solution, something in common that could make commerce grow,” Haddad told reporters as he arrived in Buenos Aires.
Haddad said Argentina’s trade with Brazil had suffered due to a lack of dollars in the southern neighbour, where an economic crisis has left the government battling to replenish foreign currency reserves, with an inflation rate of nearly 100 percent last year.
Haddad noted Argentina was an important buyer of Brazilian industrial goods and that “several possibilities” were being floated to circumvent its currency problems, though no decision had been made. Read More…
