Patagonia Summit Sheds Light on Mood Before Argentina Vote

Carolina Millan, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- Argentine executives are preparing for the next government with a mix of pessimism, resignation and even some humor.

At an annual conference in the pristine Patagonian city of Bariloche last week, held at the legendary Llao Llao hotel, about 200 politicians, CEOs, traders and business owners gathered to discuss the outlook for the country. While the meeting would usually be full of suspense and speculation on the eve of an election over the latest opinion polls or market moves ahead of the Oct. 27 vote, there was a sense that an opposition victory is already pretty much a done deal.

It’s all part of the new reality since opposition candidate Alberto Fernandez trounced President Mauricio Macri in an Aug. 11 primary, setting into motion a historic market selloff which prompted the government to reimpose capital controls and unilaterally push out maturities on local government debt. The change of terms on the local debt and a proposal to extend the timeframe for other bonds referred to as a “reprofiling,” was a persistent theme at the gathering near snowcapped mountains and the Moreno lake.

“I’m feeling reprofiled,” one executive laughed when greeted by another.

Another executive at a communications firm joked that after the currency plunge, they had to “reprofile” their capital investment plans. And one moderator took a delay in stride, saying “we’ve reprofiled the next panel. If it goes much longer they’ll say we did a haircut.”

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https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/patagonia-summit-sheds-light-on-mood-before-argentina-vote-1.1326829