Ricardo Esteves, columnist at La Nación in Argentina: “Due to this reality of negative real interest rates, the Argentine financial system is well below its potential and has a very small size relative to the GDP of the country. The loan stock must be 10 percent of GDP versus Brazil, which should be around 80 percent. However, this very complex context makes banks very cautious and causes them to lower their risk by reducing their credit portfolio and maintaining high reserves. Negative rates make deposits very short-term, forcing banks to give short-term loans usually to finance the public sector, the working capital of companies and short-term consumer loans (credit cards), and very little credit for long-term productive investments. With this in mind, I think Argentine banks will not do badly because they are they are very well capitalized. Banks are already foreseeing this adverse context and adapting…”