Depreciation of the ariary: no reason to panic, reassured the Treasury secretary

The Treasury secretary does not want to hear about depreciation of the national currency. The ariary has definitely plunged against the euro but Hery Rajaonarimampianina estimates that the situation is not as alarming as described by some “rumours”. The key of the currency crisis would be “information”. 

 “One cannot say that the ariary is undergoing a slump”, moderated the Treasury secretary, “it is only a mere downturn”. The state can face up to its mid term obligations. “We integrated the oil factors, the imports of basic products, means of production and drugs…. We have a relatively comfortable foreign currency reserve”. 

Information stemming from currency market actors would have given rise to panic and pushed economic operators to engage on speculation. The Treasury secretary is correcting his say by attesting that he has been misunderstood when he’s spoken about state control on import factors and its backlash on the national currency’s value. “Restricting import has always been off the point”, protested Hery Rajaonarimampianina. 

As a solution, the Treasury secretary is proposing fair import management, the country’s crisis situation being held in account. He is putting, as an example, car retailers forward; they still a full stock of cars to deal with and do not need to import. Hery Rajaonarimampianina is even appearing a wee bit more motivated when stating that the state could eventually assess, together with operators, the goods to import in priority. 

“When there is an available stock, why on earth import? In the opposite case, economic operators will be notified of the amount to import”. The minister is definitely keen on managing far more than data with the public sector. Hery Rajaonarimampianina wants to put an end to misinformation originated speculations”. First of all, the government could be cancelling rice orders motivated by rumours of an eventual shortage of this Malagasy essential commodity. 

Against all odds, the state accountant is appearing more than optimistic. “There is no way to worry either about our capability to import or about our foreign currency reserves”, boasted Hery Rajaonarimampianina. The central bank allegedly still has nearly 800 millions US dollars indeed, enough to hold on at least until the end of the year, according to the Finance Minister.  

The development of the year 2010 finance law is also part of the new minister’s showdowns. The government is not sure to be able to stand by the precious financial backers’ donor money. “The priorities are the organization of elections and the setting up of the institutions defined by the Maputo agreements until the election date”, shared Hery Rajaonarimampianina. On state budget has to be voted anyway.