10 - The Alvear interlude, 1922–8

Summary

The war and post-war period of rapid inflation, which was the most important conditioning factor on politics during Yrigoyen's presidency, ended with the post-war depression in 1921. The economic background to the next six-year presidential term was depression followed by a prolonged phase of recovery which lasted until 1929. Although there was a recession in 1925, foreign trade and exports averaged out over the period as a whole above the levels they had attained immediately before the war. During the 1920s agricultural production did not expand as rapidly as during the pre-war period. There was little land left to bring into production, and there was no major investment programme to increase productivity by any great amount. In part such investment was discouraged by signs of changing patterns of world demand for agricultural products. Before 1914 the great boom had occurred mainly with cereals. In the affluent 1920s a shift developed towards meat. This meant the gradual replacement of cereal production by cattle farming, and a correspondingly greater prevalence of extensive farming. Although it went largely unperceived at the time, the 1920s was a period of incipient stagnation in the export economy. This began to encourage efforts at economic diversification.

As before 1914, Argentina's imports were generally higher than her exports, and the deficit was covered by new injections of foreign capital. Of this, however, a growing proportion began to come from the United States.