Administrative division. – Changes have been made in the administrative division of the to. and currently it is divided as shown in the table. In 1950 the province of Los Andes was abolished, dividing its territory between the provinces of Jujuy, Salta and Catamarca; in 1951 the province of Comodoro Rivadavia was established with part of the surface of the Chubut territory; this province was again suppressed in 1958 and its territory attributed to the provinces of Santa Cruz and Chubut; Furthermore, in 1951 the territories of Chaco and Pampa were elevated to provinces with the respective names of Presidente Perón and Eva Perón, names that they kept until 1956, when they resumed the previous name. Finally, with a provision of June 15, 1955, the territories of Formosa, Neuquén, Río Negro and Chubut were elevated to provinces;antarctica, in this App.). In addition to the change in the name of the provinces of Chaco and La Pampa, it should be remembered that from 1952 to 1956 the city of La Plata was called with the name of Eva Perón. For Argentina government and politics, please check a2zgov.com.
Population. – The 1947 census gave 16,104,929 residents for the whole country, which had risen, according to an estimate, to about 20,600,000 in 1959 (7.2 per km 2). This strong increase (for the data in particular according to the evaluation of 1958 see the table on page below) is due, in addition to the natural increase, to immigration, which is around 60,000 individuals per year (since Italy 7540 immigrants in 1959 against 3606 returnees).
Communications. – The Merchant Navy in 1959 had 364 ships with 1,039,000 tonnes of tonnage. The railway network extends for approximately 47,000 km; in 1948 the 901 km long trans-Andean line Salta-Antofagasta was inaugurated. Another trans-Andean railway, which connects Bahía Blanca to Concepción, passing through Zapala, has been in operation since 1957. Another line will connect San Carlos de Bariloche (province of Río Negro) with the great line of the Chilean network which runs from north to south. thus ensuring the connection with the port of Viedma, on the Atlantic. The 500 km long Yacuiba-Santa Cruz (Bolivia) line has been in operation since 1957. The construction of a further 19 additional lines is also being studied. The roads extend for 500,000 km of which 66,000 km are wide carriageways, open to traffic since 1956; four major roads make up the Argentine sector of the Pan American Highway. Argentine airlines carried 956,000 passengers in 1958.
Foreign trade. – Foreign trade is still passive; in the period 1952-1956 the average value of imports was 9720.5 million pesos, while that of exports was 9338.4 million. Exports are mainly aimed at Great Britain (12.2%), France (7.6%), the USA (12.3%), Italy (7.3%): to. in turn it imports iron, various machinery, fuels, lubricants, textile products, etc., from the USA (20%), from the Federal Republic of Germany (9.5%), from Brazil (7.5%).
Finances. – The development of the Argentine economy during the last decade has been accompanied by a strong expansion of prices and wages, which have risen about 8 and 6 times respectively, against an increase of only 6% recorded by industrial production. The major factors in the inflationary process are to be found in the excessive spending of the state and in the constant growth of internal consumer demand, which has largely absorbed the increase in the national product. The conditions of considerable aging of the production system and, among the external factors, the contrasting trend of trade flows with foreign countries and the worsening of the terms of trade in recent years, have also contributed to influencing the real capacities of Argentine economy.
Along the same line of prices and to a lesser extent than that of wages, the money supply increased at the end of 1959 to a level equal to 5.4 times that existing at the end of 1950, while the use of monetary resources was greatly intensified. relative to current national income. With the banking reform that took place in December 1957, commercial banks were authorized to manage the deposits they collected on their own, instead of paying them entirely to the central bank under the provisions previously in force. Under the new legislation, however, banks are required to hold their reserves with the central bank at a variable percentage of their deposits.
The complex multiple exchange structure was changed in August 1950 into a system of two fixed exchange rates, equal to 5.0 and 7.5 pesos per US dollar, and one free exchange rate. Subsequently, various modifications were introduced to favor exports and limit imports. And this until the exchange reform in October 1955, coinciding with a new devaluation of the peso. The official parity with the dollar was then raised to 18 pesos.
In 1956, faced with a considerable accumulation of Argentine debts in bilateral clearing accounts, various European countries among the major creditors (including Italy) were reluctant to further extend their credit lines and formed themselves into the so-called Club. of Paris in order to regulate the repayment of debts by Argentina. According to the Club agreements signed on 25 November, the various currencies of the creditor countries were made freely transferable between them in respect of credits towards Argentina, while the times and annual installments for the gradual amortization of the existing debt were fixed.
A new floating exchange rate system was introduced in January 1959 following the unification of the currency market. All incoming and outgoing items now flow into this and are settled at the only free exchange rate expressed by the market. The discrimination of transactions was also maintained, in the sense that export revenues are burdened by a tax which varies, depending on the product, from 10% (for wheat) to 20% (for slaughtered meat, animals and the wool). With the exception of some essential products (such as oil, rubber, etc.), the disbursement is increased by 20, 40, 100 and 200 percent on imports.
