Rights groups have expressed concern over a proposed 15% decrease in funding for human rights issues in the 2017 budget. According to the draft budget bill presented by Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay, the Human Rights Secretariat will receive $110m less than it was assigned in 2016. The draft budget only delegate 0.6% of total expenditure to the Ministry of Science and Technology, whereas the budget allocation oscillated between 0.7% and 0.8% between 2009 and 2016. Last Thursday, 12 officials from the Ministry of Agroindustry resigned over proposed budget cuts to small-scale “family agriculture”. In the budget draft, the projected GDP growth for 2017 is 3.5% (up from an estimated -1.5% this year), with inflation forecast to come between 12% and 17%.

Source: The Argentina Independent October 18, 2016 19:07 UTC