BUENOS AIRES--Argentine President Cristina Kirchner will submit her government's 2013 budget bill to the lower house of Congress on Friday, state news agency Telam said.
The Lower House budget committee will start reviewing the bill Sept. 26, and the full house will likely put it to a vote in late October, Telam said Friday, citing unnamed congressional sources.
The budget assumes 4.4% economic growth and an average official exchange rate of 5.10 pesos to the U.S. dollar in 2013, financial newspaper Ambito Financiero said Friday, without saying where it obtained the information.
The peso was recently quoted trading at ARS4.6670 to the dollar on the MAE foreign-exchange wholesale market, compared with ARS4.6640 at Thursday's close.
On the black market, where some Argentines seek dollars due to strict foreign-exchange controls, the peso traded at ARS6.33 to the dollar, according to newspaper El Cronista.
The Kirchner administration typically builds its budgets using extremely conservative macroeconomic forecasts that usually result in windfall tax revenue when the government reports that the economy grew faster than budgeted.
Mrs. Kirchner's control of Congress and the idiosyncrasies of Argentine law allow her to reassign excess revenue between different ministries with little or no oversight.
Mrs. Kirchner's faction of the ruling Peronist Party and its allies hold a slim majority in both houses, meaning that passage of her budget is virtually assured.
Once approved by the Lower House, the budget bill will go to the Senate. Economy Minister Hernan Lorenzino will give a brief overview of the budget to legislators Sept. 20, Telam said.
Bond investors are eagerly awaiting the budget's forecast of economic growth for this year and 2013 to see if Argentina's growth-linked securities will pay out in 2013 and 2014.
Argentina's government first issued the so-called GDP Warrants in 2005 as part of a debt exchange with investors who owned about $81.8 billion in securities that Argentina defaulted on in 2001.
The warrants--denominated in euros, U.S. dollars and pesos--make payments the year following a year in which annual gross-domestic-product growth exceeded 3.26%.
The GDP warrants have paid out handsomely thanks to almost a decade of breakneck growth fueled by a boom in grain exports and a vibrant domestic economy.
Argentina's economy grew 7.6% a year on average between 2003 and 2010, and growth last year was a whopping 8.9%, according to government data.
The economy slowed considerably in the first half of the year as lackluster growth in Brazil trimmed demand for Argentine exports and farm output was dented by a drought.
The Central Bank of Argentina's most recent monthly survey of more than 50 analysts produced a median forecast of 3.1% growth in 2012.
The recent rally in GDP warrants appears to signal that a number of investors expect the government to report growth north of the 3.26% trigger this year and next.
Argentina's official economic data have long been suspect after former President Nestor Kirchner replaced staff at the national statistics agency with political appointees in early 2007. The government is widely thought to somewhat overstate growth by underreporting inflation.
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The Lower House budget committee will start reviewing the bill Sept. 26, and the full house will likely put it to a vote in late October, Telam said Friday, citing unnamed congressional sources.
The budget assumes 4.4% economic growth and an average official exchange rate of 5.10 pesos to the U.S. dollar in 2013, financial newspaper Ambito Financiero said Friday, without saying where it obtained the information.
The peso was recently quoted trading at ARS4.6670 to the dollar on the MAE foreign-exchange wholesale market, compared with ARS4.6640 at Thursday's close.
On the black market, where some Argentines seek dollars due to strict foreign-exchange controls, the peso traded at ARS6.33 to the dollar, according to newspaper El Cronista.
The Kirchner administration typically builds its budgets using extremely conservative macroeconomic forecasts that usually result in windfall tax revenue when the government reports that the economy grew faster than budgeted.
Mrs. Kirchner's control of Congress and the idiosyncrasies of Argentine law allow her to reassign excess revenue between different ministries with little or no oversight.
Mrs. Kirchner's faction of the ruling Peronist Party and its allies hold a slim majority in both houses, meaning that passage of her budget is virtually assured.
Once approved by the Lower House, the budget bill will go to the Senate. Economy Minister Hernan Lorenzino will give a brief overview of the budget to legislators Sept. 20, Telam said.
Bond investors are eagerly awaiting the budget's forecast of economic growth for this year and 2013 to see if Argentina's growth-linked securities will pay out in 2013 and 2014.
Argentina's government first issued the so-called GDP Warrants in 2005 as part of a debt exchange with investors who owned about $81.8 billion in securities that Argentina defaulted on in 2001.
The warrants--denominated in euros, U.S. dollars and pesos--make payments the year following a year in which annual gross-domestic-product growth exceeded 3.26%.
The GDP warrants have paid out handsomely thanks to almost a decade of breakneck growth fueled by a boom in grain exports and a vibrant domestic economy.
Argentina's economy grew 7.6% a year on average between 2003 and 2010, and growth last year was a whopping 8.9%, according to government data.
The economy slowed considerably in the first half of the year as lackluster growth in Brazil trimmed demand for Argentine exports and farm output was dented by a drought.
The Central Bank of Argentina's most recent monthly survey of more than 50 analysts produced a median forecast of 3.1% growth in 2012.
The recent rally in GDP warrants appears to signal that a number of investors expect the government to report growth north of the 3.26% trigger this year and next.
Argentina's official economic data have long been suspect after former President Nestor Kirchner replaced staff at the national statistics agency with political appointees in early 2007. The government is widely thought to somewhat overstate growth by underreporting inflation.
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