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BUENOS AIRES, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- Inflation, unemployment, fiscal deficit and attracting foreign investment are the main challenges awaiting Argentina in 2017, according to economist Maria Cecilia Peralta.
In an interview with Xinhua, the co-founder of the Asia Viewers consultancy, said 2017 would be faced with "great challenges...after a turbulent year which saw a change in strategies" by the country's President Mauricio Macri.
"During 2016, measures were taken to deactivate previous mechanisms, such as restrictions on currency exchange, limitations on commodities, and subsidies for public services...as we move from one administration to another," said Peralta.
In her opinion, the changes "have generated new macroeconomic adjustments and led to new challenges which deepened during the first year of the Macri government."
According to government data, in the third quarter of 2016, unemployment rate rose to 8.5 percent and GDP contracted by 3.8 percent in Argentina.
"It is expected that the GDP drop in 2016 will be between 2 and 2.5 percent. Economic activity and job creation will therefore be some of the major challenges for 2017, which various ministries already know," Peralta said.
Peralta also said: "The inflation level and an improvement in employment and salaries would have a direct impact on improving well-being and reducing poverty."
"On the macroeconomic front, the following must be done: improve fiscal deficit, generate investments in industrial sectors, reactivate exports, improve the competitiveness of regional economies and generate public works," she added.
"Argentina will face major challenges next year, in an uncertain global context, where capital will not flow toward emerging markets." Peralta predicted, noting: "Local and international opportunities must be seized to reach balanced growth and a path to development."
On Friday, Nicolas Dujovne, who will become Argentina's minister of finance on Jan. 2, said one of his goals for 2017 is to lower the deficit by 4.2 percent and that the government achieved its goal of reducing it by 4.8 percent in 2016.
