LatinNews Daily - 04 May 2023

* The mayor of Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires, and an aspiring presidential candidate for the right-of-centre Juntos por el Cambio (JxC) coalition in the October elections, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, has previewed what his economic policies would look like if he is elected. Larreta said he would reduce inflation by bolstering the independence of the central bank (BCRA), saying that “I’m going to close the doors of the central bank to make it independent so that when the government spends too much or inefficiently, it can’t go knocking on its doors to ask for money”. He also said that he would “stop spending more than we have every year”, describing the printing of money by the BCRA as “Argentina’s famous machine of unhappiness that must be thrown away”. Larreta also said he would increase Argentina’s reserves of hard currency by expanding trade with southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia.