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By Richard Lough and Nicolás Misculin
BUENOS AIRES, June 30 (Reuters) - For shell-shocked Greeks struggling with temporarily shuttered banks, long lines at ATMs and limits on withdrawals, Argentines who survived similar financial chaos more than a decade ago have some guidance.
"The advice I would give is to go get your money out of the bank," said Leo Suckewer, a Buenos Aires restaurant operator, recalling Argentina's "corralito", or freeze, on bank accounts in late 2001, aimed at halting a run on banks.
That move preceded the decision to abandon pegging the peso to the dollar as well as convert savers' dollar holdings into local currency. The radical policies plunged millions of Argentines into poverty as the economy contracted violently after three years of steady decline and triggered deadly rioting, the fall of the government and Argentina's record default on $100 billion of sovereign debt.
But within a year from a sharp devaluation in early 2002 the country returned to economic growth - something that Greece must now crave, with its economy shrinking by more than 25 percent since 2009.
There are striking similarities between the Argentine economic crisis of 2001-2002 and the turmoil in Greece: rigid monetary regimes, creditors battling against domestic politics to fix the problem and banking systems at breaking point.
On Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel ruled out new negotiations with Greece until after it votes on a bailout proposal by creditors. That left Athens virtually no hope to avert a midnight default, and could set Greece on a path out of the euro.
Some economists argue that Greeks might be better off going back to its old drachma currency as it would allow Athens to spend more freely and point to Argentina's rapid recovery from the brink of collapse.
Riding an export boom for commodities such as soybeans and spending heavily to fuel consumer demand, Argentina became one of the fastest growing economies in the Americas with growth averaging above 8.5 percent annually between 2003 and 2007.
NO RUSH TO "GREXIT"
Yet Roberto Lavagna, Argentina's economy minister in 2002-2005 and architect of its recovery, said it was too early for Greece to consider ditching the single currency.
"Devaluation is not the central issue today, because it means leaving the euro. I don't think that is necessary."
He said, however, that creditors had to accept that Greek debt "had reached a point where it has to be restructured" and that further belt-tightening made no sense.
"Greece cannot afford to be sucked into austerity reforms," Lavagna told Reuters. "On the contrary, it needs to boost productivity which is what we did back then."