Argentines will get long-term bonds in exchange for their bank savings, the country’s government has announced.
Although the sudden introduction of new fiscal and economic measures came as a surprise, Argentines with money in the bank had been fearful since the freezing of their accounts in December that the government would at some stage take their assets.
But Economy Minister Mr Jorge Remes Lenicov told a press conference the measures would "improve the performance of the economy, give fiscal solvency, strengthen social programs and help companies recover to launch a new [economic] cycle".
Other steps include Argentina granting one billion pesos in loans to manufacturers and producers, and imposing 10 per cent export taxes on primary products and 5 per cent on industrial manufactured products.
"These are the hardest times we've ever lived through in the national education system, in the country generally and for those who are unemployed," said Ms Martha Maffei, the leader of CTERA, Argentina's biggest teachers' union.
"Never before have we seen 50 percent of our children living below the poverty line," she said.
But President Mr Eduardo Duhalde, on the first day of the 2002 school year, pleaded with striking teachers to return to work. "Go back to the schools, there's nothing else that can be done in the face of the severe crisis," he said.
In an already meagerly funded education system, the government has cut the education budget by 500 million pesos for the province of Buenos Aires alone.
AFP