Crisis financieras en los noventa y sus salidas: Argentina, Brasil y Uruguay en comparación

Abstract

Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay adopted a similar economic model in the 1990s. The financial crisis of years 1998-2002 stemmed from the contradictions of this model, especially the resulting structural deficit of the current account and the rapidly growing external debt. Due to the advanced degree of dollarization in Argentina and Uruguay, the financial crisis was much more profound in these two countries than in Brazil. In Argentina, the severe economic crisis caused wide-spread social protests and a crisis of political legitimacy. Therefore, the Argentinian government adopted somewhat more heterodox economic policies. Generally, the economic policies have been a mixture of orthodox elements (esp. in fiscal policies and, in Brazil, in monetary policies) and rather social-keynesian or even developmentalist policies. Economic recovery was based on devaluation, raw material exports and social and wage policies that sustained domestic demand. As the only government in the region, the Lula government introduced industrial policies. Due to the changes in post-crisis economic policies, the economies of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay proved rather resilient in the face of the present global crisis. However, the balance of payments continues to be an Achilles heel of the regimes of accumulation. Key words: financial crisis, financialization, economic policies Artigo recebido em 09 de dez. 2009.