Haddad and Argentine ambassador discuss creation of single currency for Mercosur

The Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, met this Tuesday (3) with the Argentine ambassador to Brazil, Daniel Scioli, and they discussed the creation of a common currency for Mercosur.

The objective, according to Scioli, is to strengthen the trade bloc and expand ties between countries in the region. For him, the idea is not to create a single currency like the euro — the official currency of the member countries of the European Union — but rather one for the bloc. “About the common currency, we will work. It does not mean that each country does not have its own currency, it means a unit for integration and increased commercial exchange throughout this regional bloc. And, as President Lula said, strengthening Mercosur, expanding Latin American union, is very important,” said Scioli.

As the Argentine highlighted, the main topics discussed with Haddad were the energy and financial integration between Brazil and Argentina and the commercial advance between the two countries.

“Brazil is Argentina’s number one partner. And, in a context of globalization crisis, we are going to strengthen our region and our complementation. Haddad is an economist who has a very productivist vision, the vision of the real economy, a very real commitment also with the great objective of the common currency, which will also have a positive impact”, declared the ambassador.

Viability

Both President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and former Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, have already defended the implementation of a “single currency” for Latin American countries, but they come up against a reality that is still far from ideal for their implementation, according to experts consulted by the CNN Brazil Business .

In practice, the countries would give up the real, peso or bolivar, and would adopt the same official currency as a means of payment for commercial transactions inside and outside their borders.

For Eleven Financial economist Thomaz Sarquis, there is no sense in creating a single monetary policy neither for Mercosur nor for Latin America.
“The big problem is the lack of monetary autonomy.

When the European Central Bank raises interest rates, for example, the increase applies to the entire euro currency. In our case, in a policy like this, Brazil would be dependent on the fiscal situation of Argentina to define the increase in interest rates, since the risk would be perceived as belonging to the bloc.”

For him, the difference between the economies is essential. “Although our fiscal policy is not an example for other countries, we have a more stable currency than Argentina’s.”

For the PhD in economics from Cornell University Marcelo Kfoury, in addition to the disparity between Latin American countries, the economic bloc of Mercosur has not yet evolved as occurred with the European Union, which has achieved economic integrity and proximity among the bloc’s participants.