Becoming a serious country

摘要

From Wednesdays to Saturdays, a would-be diner who turns up at a restaurant in the fashionable Barrio Norte of Buenos Aires at 9pm without a reservation may have to wait for an hour or more for a table. Calle Florida, the pedestrianised shopping street running parallel to the River Plate, is thronged with tourists taking advantage of the cheap peso and the shiny new shops selling fashion, consumer electronics and books. Farmers from the Pampas are splashing out on new harvesting machines and pick-up trucks. Almost across the board, Argentina's economy is booming. The recovery gathered pace throughout last year: since September, GDP has expanded at an annual rate of 11%. And as the economy picked up, the government's authority seemed to revive in parallel.