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Argentina May Back 9 Billion-Peso Stimulus Package, Nacion Says
Bloomberg
July 13, 2008

By Bill Faries

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner may propose a stimulus package valued at more than 9 billion pesos ($3 billion) to boost consumption in South America's second-largest economy, La Nacion said.

The government is weighing measures that include raising the minimum wage 28 percent to 1,250 pesos, exempting more families from income taxes and boosting social security payments, La Nacion said, without saying where it obtained the information.

The package will be targeted toward middle-class workers and may be announced after Congress decides this week on whether to back Fernandez's new export taxes on grains and oilseeds, the newspaper said.

Economists including Dante Sica, the director of Abeceb.com in Buenos Aires, said the measures may accelerate inflation, La Nacion said.