Argentine President
Pledges To Cut
Unemployment, Poverty
Rates
Argentina is in "its
greatest growth period
in the latest 100
years," President
Cristina Fernandez said
in her first annual
address to Congress
Saturday, vowing to
slash poverty rates.
In the nationally
televised speech,
Fernandez lauded the
country's economic
growth at over 8 percent
for the past five
straight years and
promised to maintain
budget surpluses and
stockpile foreign
currency reserves.
Fernandez also pledged
to cut down the
unemployment to 5
percent from the current
7.5 percent, the lowest
in 13 years.
The president further
vowed to reduce the
poverty rates below 10
percent from the present
25 percent, which was
brought down from about
50 percent in 2002.
On energy issues,
Fernandez dismissed
media reports about any
energy crisis, saying
Brazil and Argentina are
continuing talks to
share diminishing
Bolivian natural gas
supplies. |
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