Go to the World Bank’s databank website at http://databank.worldbank.org/data/reports. aspx?source=2&country=. Find the following annual data for Argentina, for the past 25 years: (i) GDP at current US$ prices; (ii) the general price level; (iii) the current account balance, in current US$; (iv) government debt in percentage of GDP; (v) the exchange rate.

Download the data into a spreadsheet, and make sure the data align correctly with the appropriate date. Calculate annual GDP growth for each year over the period, following the procedure used in the previous question.

Calculate the value of current account balance as percentage of GDP. Calculate the annual inflation rate in terms of annual changes in the general price level.

a. Analyze the relationship between annual GDP growth, inflation rate, government debt, the current account balance, and the exchange rate in the two years prior to the 2001 crisis, during the crisis, and the two years after the crisis ended. Do you find a different pattern from the Southeast Asian crisis?

To what extent are government debt, inflation, and shifts in the exchange rate related?

b. Analyze the same data for the subsequent period, until the most recent year you could find. Comment on the nature and the duration of the effects of the 2001 financial crisis on Argentinian GDP.

c. Compare the years before the 2001 crisis, the crisis years, and the immediate aftermath, with the data you have for the most recent five years. What is the difference? To what extent would you say that Argentina finds itself in a better place now than it was 18 years ago?