Historical reflection on the Austral Plan: an economic projection of capitalist restructuring for the new democratic era (1983-1985)

Abstract

Economic policy in the post-dictatorship years (1983-1989), constitutes a subject scarcely addressed by recent economic historiography in comparison with other stages of Argentine history. This is especially accentuated with the Austral anti-inflationary Plan, launched in 1985 by the then Minister of Economy Juan V. Sorrouille (1985-1989), despite having had a profuse contemporary economic production. Bearing this in mind, we propose to investigate the antecedents and initial formulations of the Austral Plan, supporting the hypothesis that this, despite having been a strictly anti-inflationary plan, had an important economic projection for Argentina. To do this, we have tracked various sources ranging from contemporary economic literature, testimonials, and periodicals, to some more recent approaches to economics and recent economic history. By means of an interpretive historical method of analysis and contrasting of sources of the time, we aim to rescue the long-term facet of the Austral, although the economic problems of post-authoritarian Argentina have buried it forever.