Por Luisa García Pelatti
En noviembre, la Secretaria de Hacienda, Melba Acosta Febo, enviaba una carta a The Economist, que últimamente ha publicado varios artículos poco favorecedores de la economía de Puerto Rico. Ahora ha sido Richard Carrión, principal oficial ejecutivo de Popular, Inc. matriz del principal banco de la Isla, el que se ha dirigido a la prestigiosa revista para quejarse del enfoque poco objetivo ofrecido de la Isla.
Carrión reacciona a un artículo titulado “Buying on credit is so nice”, publicado el 23 de noviembre, que considera contiene información que no es exacta. Esta es la carta:
Puerto Rico
SIR – I was very disappointed with your latest story on Puerto Rico (“Buying on credit is so nice”, November 23rd). Although the article was purportedly directed at the island’s fiscal crisis, it gratuitously asserted that it “now handles 40% of the cocaine entering the United States”. That is totally inaccurate according to estimates from American law-enforcement agencies, which put the proportion of cocaine coming into the United States from the entire Caribbean region at 14%. Nor did you explain that the primary responsibility for policing Puerto Rico’s borders lies with the federal government.
You also noted the apparent difficulty of doing business here. Yet Puerto Rico was ranked 30th in the World Economic Forum’s “Global Competitiveness Report,” higher than any country in Latin America. Even the rating agencies recognise that Puerto Rico has a large and diversified economy. You said that the effect on economic activity by new levies on businesses would negate half of the expected increase in revenues, but you overlooked easily available data showing that net government revenues were $350m during the first fourth months of the current fiscal year, $120m higher than forecast.
Although Puerto Rico clearly has a lot of work to do to address its fiscal and economic challenges, inaccurate articles only make that task more difficult.
RICHARD CARRIÓN
Chief executive
Banco Popular
San Juan, Puerto Rico
