IKN

Argentina: National Government Miner Friendly up 1 point,
Community/Social Miner Friendly down 1 point.

At times this quarter it’s seemed
like there is only one country with mining activity in South America, judging
at least by the contents of my mail inbox. Everyone wants to know something or
other about Argentina mining these days, it seems.

However the most pressing issue
today is the state of the country’s macro economy because we’re now in a
crucial period that will decide whether the reforms President Macri has pushed
and is pushing through will be successful. In effect, what the Macri government
is betting on is that the next couple of quarters are the period of max pain
for the country economy. The fiscal and monetary reforms now in place are
classic orthodox economic pills to swallow (and why the IMF is praising
Argentina so effusively): Go through the sharp recession, restrict pay rises
and then see inflation drop later, enjoy the benefits of a V shaped drop next
year. As things stand today the country in in recession (best fit figure -5%
GDP) and this is expected to continue to the end of the year, while inflation
has shown signs of dropping in the latest sets of data but is still running at
between 35% and 40% per annum. As wages are no longer keeping up with prices,
the discontent at street level is rising fast and Macri’s approval ratings have
dropped from 60% at the beginning of the year to between 35% and 45% today
(depending on which pollster you prefer).

However 2017 does look brighter for
the country and the situation was summed up neatly last week in by one of
Argentina’s most famous economists (who seems to have been around forever, he
was chief economic advisor in the Carlos Men_m years*), Miguel Kiguel in an
economics conference. Here’s a quote (14) (translated):

“There’s not much doubt
that next year Argentina will grow (i.e. year-over-year GDP expansion), even
(Ex-Minister of the economy in the Cristina government Axel) Kicillof agrees.
And there’s not much doubt that inflation will drop either. What we see this
year in an inflation rate of 40% has a lot to do with the one-time
readjustments (e.g. the very large utiliity bill increases, known as  “tarifazos”, as government subsidies were
withdrawn). Later we’ll see whether the Central Bank has enough power to drop
inflation to 17% in 2017 or maybe it will be a little higher, but nobody’s
expecting an inflation rate in 2017 that starts with a 3, the most pessimistic
are talking about 23% or 24%, the most optimistic around 17%.”

So there you have the scenario for
the next year; pain today, GDP recovery at perhaps 5% next year, with an
inflation rate that drops from its current 40% to something around 20% in 2017.
The point here is that 2017 will be better, but will it be enough and for two reasons:

1)     
Inflation at 20% is better, but it’s still going to hurt
the back pockets of José Publico if their salary increases are restricted to
below that level and add to the hurt they’re currently feeling. A year is a
long time and the dissent is likely to get louder before it calms.

2)     
A key point: In October 2017 Argentina has mid-term
legislative elections in which 127 of the 257 lower house parliament seats
(just under half) and 24 of the 72 upper house senate seats (one third) are up
for grabs. This vote will be critically important, as not only might it change
the balance of legislative power in Congress but it’s already being framed as
the make-or-break moment for the Macri reform package.

Therefore, not only is there a
reform period to get through without too much social protest, but there’s a
time limit on progress too because if the recovery lags in the country and the
rank and file are suffering too deeply come election day, Macri (and I keep
reminding people that he only scraped in 52%/48% last year) is going to get a
big thumbs down and then everything is up for grabs. And signs today are not
good. Not only do we have his dropping approval ratings but as noted last week
the largest and most powerful union in the country is now on the brink of calling
a one day general strike to protest the measures in place. They want bigger
wage increases etc etc, just the type of thing that would feed inflation (15)
at the wrong time for the economic turnaround model Macri and his team are
trying to implement. The strike still doesn’t have a fixed date and there are
formal negotiations that are expected to go on for the next ten days, but a
strike if it happens would be a clear negative and may set off further rounds
of social protest.

Meanwhile in the mining scene, the
government is still trying its hardest to push the Federal “all work together”
model in the provinces and try to take executive decision power away from
individual governors. That’s going to be a tough sell in places like Chubut and
I’ve covered that example (particularly Navidad) closely, as it’s a good test
case for the rest of the country. Then on top of all that, Barrick goes and
adds insult to injury with another spillage incident at Veladero (see above),
which wouldn’t have been any sort of problem if the company hadn’t been stupid
enough to try and cover it all up.

Overall, Argentina gets one plus
point for the macro and one negative point for the mining scene this quarter,
but it’s still a story that’s being way overhyped in the North and the large-scale
risks involved in jumping in too early are being ignored by most commentators
(and the board of directors of Fortuna Silver).