Argentina Ex-President Cristina Fernández Summoned for Investigation on Peso Inflation

Former Argentina president Cristina Fernandez is currently in the hot seat. She is suspected of being part of a peso inflation scheme and has been ordered to answer some questions.

The former president is asked to explain how her government handled the futures market. This is the first time that she was legally called to court, even though there are already several investigations against her.

Federal judge Claudio Bonadio stated last Friday that the former president is strongly suspected of being involved in a scheme to keep the Argentinian peso inflated by "selling derivates lower than the appropriate market value." Because of the inflation, central bank reserves dropped significantly.

The court wants the Fernandez to explain this in court on 13 April. The former central banker Alejandro Vanoli, as well as former economy minister Axel Kicillof, are also ordered to appear in court.

It can be remembered that reserves dwindled to their lowest in nearly 10 years at end of Fernandez's presidency. "The point of this move was to inflate the peso, to avoid the peso from weakening," said economist José Luis Espert said at the time. "The central bank had two alternatives: assume a short-term crisis with a strong devaluation of the peso, or selling dollars on the futures market, deplete the reserves and accept a currency crisis. The central bank chose to kick the ball and sell dollars in the future."

Even though the summons for Fernandez to appear in court did not include accusations of corruption or personal enrichment, the opposition is taking this move that way.

According to Celia Kleiman of Polldata, for quite some time now, the opposition has been waiting to see if the justice system will have the guts to pursue some action against Fernandez, with regard to corruption. This seems to be the first step.

The former president has no shortage of her own supporters, though. After news of the summons broke out, supporters took to Twitter to say that "if she gets called [to testify], they will have to call us all." 

The former president was replaced by Mauricio Macri. So far, he is delivering one another after another made during his electoral campaign. His zealousness and commitment have caught the eye of equity fund managers. The recent FT Confidential Research Survey revealed that 12 out of 20 equity fund managers now have higher confidence in Argentina. They plan to allocate more funds to the country in the first quarter of 2016 as a result.

Here is a video of President Macri's plan to modernize the country: