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GUEST: Mark Wesibrot, with the Center for Economic and Policy Research

Argentina’s first lady, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has claimed victory in yesterday’s presidential elections. With 95 percent of the votes counted, Fernandez de Kirchner avoided a runoff with any of the 13 candidates by gaining about 45 percent of the vote. Fernandez de Kirchner didn’t debate or set forth clear political proposals – and largely road the economic boom that her husband, Nestor Kirchner set forward in this current term. A large part of current president Kirchner’s popularity comes from unorthodox economic policies set forth after Argentina’s break with the International Monetary Fund in 2001. Despite pressure from the IMF to target inflation and push for spending cuts, the austerity took an independent course. Argentina’s economy has grown by more than 50 percent in real during the past five and a half years of expansion, making it the fastest-growing economy in the Western Hemisphere. Unemployment fell from 21.5 to 9.6 percent, and more than 11 million people, or 28 percent of the population, have been pulled across the poverty line, and real wages have increased by more than 40 percent.

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