Wednesday June 30, 5:29 pm Eastern Time
Buenos Aires exchange raps politicians over debt
BUENOS AIRES, June 30 (Reuters) - The Buenos Aires Stock Exchange Wednesday
called on the candidates for the Oct. 24 presidential election to stop criticizing the level of the
country's foreign debt, arguing it damages Argentina's credibility.
Ruling Peronist Party candidate Eduardo Duhalde, who is falling behind the opposition
Alliance in opinion polls, last week called for the foreign debt to be forgiven. ''Debt
payments are bleeding us,'' he said.
Alliance candidate Fernando de la Rua said Argentina's debt was a problem but was quick to add that it had to be paid.
Economists dismissed Duhalde's statements as campaign bravado. They pointed out that most of Argentina's debt is held by
countless bond holders, with whom it would be impossible to negotiate any deal.
Argentina's gross domestic product, the sum of all goods and services produced by its economy, was about $300 billion in
1998, and its per capita GDP of about $8,000 is the highest in Latin America.
''We call on the participants in the upcoming election not to bring up the issue of the public debt in their campaigns,'' the Stock
Exchange said in a news release, in which it avoided mentioning any politician's name.
''Any doubts, unrealistic as they may be, about paying off our commitments would have most grave consequences for
investment, availability of finance, and so in turn for job creation and economic well-being,'' it said.
Brokers said that the talk about the foreign debt has been one of the factors in a modest fall in Buenos Aires share prices this
week.
Both Duhalde and De la Rua have pledged to maintain the present government's tough economic policies, especially the fixed
peso-dollar exchange rate, which has reduced inflation to roughly zero.
Argentina's total public debt is about $140 billion, of which a large part is with international lenders or bond holders, according
to the Stock Exchange.
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