LA PAZ, June 23 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) — Bolivia ranks among the 10 nations with the lowest inflation on the planet, having registered 0.6 percent in May, according to the Minister of Economy, Marcelo Montenegro.
Montenegro said that the list is headed by China, with 0.2% inflation, followed by Panama, Switzerland and Greece. As for South America, he said that Bolivia is in second place after Ecuador, which registered 0.5 percent also in May.
The economic authority said that the circulation of dollars in the national market is normalizing, despite the fact that “foreshadowing voices of certain analysts” predicted a crisis more than two months ago. “Experts and doomsayers are always there and the newspapers always put their wishes in headlines and not the information that is true,” the minister criticized in an interview.
He recalled that he was informed by the board of the Association of Private Banks of Bolivia during a meeting held last Friday, that the delivery of dollars at the request of the population is being regularized.
There was an excess demand for dollars in the national market early in March, which forced the Central Bank of Bolivia to carry out direct sales of the currency, with long waiting lines at its headquarters.
The opposition politician and businessman Samuel Doria expressed in various media outlets that the country is going through a crisis that will impact inflation. “I consider that the economic stability that we had since August of 1985 has ended. We are witnessing the end of that stability. You can no longer buy dollars, bi-monetarism is appearing, that is, we use one currency for transactions and another currency for savings and investment, as it happens in Argentina,” he said.
He also referred to the headline of a newspaper critical of the policies of the Government of President Luis Arce, which announced “an economic crisis.”
However, the numbers refute that criteria and Bolivia is among the 10 nations on the planet with the lowest inflation, Montenegro concluded. — NNN-PRENSA LATINA
