A Big Mac at McDonald's costs 70 bolívars, or $16.27, at the official pre-devaluation rate.
Mr. Dart contended that Argentina must honor his bonds at the pre-devaluation rate plus interest, bringing the total to $700 million.
In the absence of a devaluation, interest rates have soared.
These changes likely represent the exchange rate devaluation in September 1976 and just one month before of the second devaluation in 1982.
He noted that, since the prices of most commodities already reflected the parallel market exchange rate, devaluation was not expected to trigger further price increases.
"This is the most brutal slimming exercise you can imagine, without the help of an exchange rate devaluation," said Thomas Mayer, chief economist of Deutsche Bank.
But Portugal's unexpected increase in G.D.P., which followed 10 consecutive quarters of contraction, "shows that you can increase export competitiveness even without the option of an exchange rate devaluation," said Luis Cabral, an economics professor at New York University.
The exchange rate devaluation presented in August 1982 and December 1982 are also presented in Table 1.
However, the exchange rate devaluation reduces the importance of technological competitiveness in affecting exports because it allows also non-innovating firms to enter foreign markets.
In January came monetary adjustments: devaluation and interest-rate hikes.
Some of the causes were external (Markwick tells a 'tale of fast growing interest rates, devaluation … investment revenue had slumped'), but some were not.
