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Mix-Ansicht- Chartal-Geld oder vielleicht doch nicht? - Bob, 17.09.2002, 02:19
Chartal-Geld oder vielleicht doch nicht?
-->Forced Peso Conversion Is
Unconstitutional, Court Says
Associated Press
BUENOS AIRES -- Argentina's Appeals Court declared a January decision to convert bank deposits from dollars into pesos unconstitutional Friday, handing the government another major headache.
ECONOMIC CONTAGION?
The court also ruled that a nine-month-old partial banking freeze introduced by the government of former President Fernando De la Rua was illegal. The court also said it was illegal for President Eduardo Duhalde to put a 120-day ban on lawsuits by Argentines seeking to recoup their savings.
Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna said the government would appeal to the Supreme Court. It is not yet known when Argentina's highest tribunal will examine the issue.
The ruling is seen hampering a speedy International Monetary Fund agreement for Mr. Duhalde, who has dispatched two of his top officials to Washington to sign a debt-relief agreement.
The case was presented by national ombudsmen Eduardo Mondino. The decision sets precedence for other similar lawsuits. However, each account holder would still have to initiate separate legal proceedings against the rulings in order to have their money converted back into dollars or freed up from banking limits.
In one of the first acts of his administration, Mr. Duhalde ordered that all dollar deposits be transferred into pesos at the rate of 1.4 peso to the currency.
The decision came just days after Mr. Duhalde brought an end to 11 years of linking the peso one-to-one with the U.S. dollar. Since then, the peso has plunged by 72% and is now 3.6 pesos to the dollar.
Mr. Duhalde's actions came after weeks of economic and political chaos that saw four presidents come and go in 13 days, Argentina's default on $141 billions in public debt and Mr. De la Rua's government introduction of cash limits on Dec. 1 in a bid to stop a run on bank deposits.
Since January, Mr. Duhalde's administration has made several moves to ease the deeply unpopular banking freeze. But that has not prevented daily protests against the banking limits or thousands of successful lawsuits contesting the peso conversion and the cash restrictions that have drained billions of pesos more from the shaky financial system.
It is not clear what action the government or the banks could take if the Supreme Court orders the banking freeze and the peso conversion reversed.
With the government short on funds and banks already in a perilous financial situation, it would be next to impossible for savers to get back their dollar deposits in full.
Friday's ruling will also complicate the government's efforts to persuade the IMF to roll over its debts through 2003.
Argentina owes nearly $5 billion to the international agency over the next nine months and is trying to persuade the IMF to allow a postponement in payments rather than force authorities to dip into diminishing currency reserves to pay back the debts.
Argentine Finance Secretary Guillermo Nielsen and Central Bank President Aldo Pignanelli are meeting with IMF officials, trying to iron out a draft letter of intent for a credit agreement.
The IMF has repeatedly said that judicial pot shots at the government's economic decisions is one of the main reasons it has shied away from an accord up until now.
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