The economy after the YPF nationalization: the good, the bad and the ugly

Is the expropriation of YPF a surprise or is part of a pattern? A little bit of both. It is in line with other extemporaneous decisions such as the introduction of the variable export taxes, the nationalization of the pension funds, the use of reserves to pay the debt, and the strict introduction of import and foreign exchange controls. In all these cases the objective was to gain financial resources or dollars.

YPF is somewhat different. It has some financial resources, but it needs to raise a lot of money to invest in production and exploration. But it still follows the pattern in the sense that it was a response to a mini-crisis that resulted from the failure of the energy policies that was costing precious dollars and a drop in the opinion polls caused by the train accident and the Boudou alleged corruption scandal. It was also a scapegoat for the failure of the energy policies at a time when bill for energy imports reached 10 billion dollars.