Word: pesos
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...spirit. He fired six members of his own Colorado Par ty from their ministerial jobs. Since then, he has replaced all but one man in the twelve-member Cabinet with "good technicians." To halt inflation, which had boosted prices 200% in 18 months and forced five devaluations of the peso, he decreed a total wage and price freeze. The government encouraged housewives to call special telephone numbers to report price rises, took to closing down the violators for ten-day periods and trotting store managers off to jail...
Last week Uruguay's economic troubles reached such a sad state that President Oscar Gestido declared his fourth devaluation of the peso since taking office last March. This time he used strong medicine: he cut the exchange rate to 102%, for the first time setting it at a realistic level in hopes of expanding trade and restoring confidence in the peso. Sure enough, Uruguayans began flipping their mattresses over and taking their hoarded supply of dollars to the banks to switch them for pesos...
...also of Colombia's banana, sugar and cotton exports. In November, the IMF, the World Bank and AID agreed to grant a stand-by loan that would give Colombia time to diversify and lessen its dependence on coffee. But there was a catch: Colombia had to devalue its peso, a move that would be highly unpopular. Lleras flatly refused, stirred up nationalistic fires in Colombians by informing them that "the governing of the nation was entrusted to us and not to the international organizations." With that, he imposed stiff exchange controls, froze all foreign exchange, cut imports...
...councils spent more time bickering than governing; the few decisions that did finally emerge only expanded an already unwieldy and extremely generous welfare program. To pay its bills, the government simply printed more money, while the economy went to pieces. The cost of living rocketed 90% last year, the peso has been fluctuating erratically, and foreign debt has jumped to more than $500 million...
Trimming Fat. Last week President Ongania was acting more like an armor-plated hare than a tortoise. To encourage exports so that the country could pay a $700 million foreign debt, the new President devalued the peso by 16% to about 250 for a U.S. dollar. In a nationwide speech, he advised that "the style today will be to export everything possible and to consume what's left." He even began negotiations with private companies to renew the oil contracts that the previous administration had canceled...