Argentina still has a new Minister of Economy

Sergio Massa, a 50 -year -old lawyer with the long political trajectory, is committed to respecting the objective of budgetary discipline set by the International Monetary Fund, against the backdrop of great uncertainty.

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One month, three ministers. Sergio Massa, hitherto president of the Chamber of Deputies, officially took the reins of the Ministry of the Economy on Wednesday August 3, before announcing his first measures. His appointment is supposed to put an end to a period of great political instability, a symptom of the crisis that lives in the center left coalition, in power since December 2019.

This member of the presidential party, Frente de Todos (front of all), succeeds Silvina Batakis, appointed on July 3. The latter had to express the most left thought of the coalition, embodied by vice-president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Twenty-five days later, she announced to leave the post, while the Peso continued to unscrew on the parallel currency market. The economist took the continuation of Martin Guzman, a disciple of the Nobel Prize in the economy Joseph Stiglitz, craftsman of the restructuring of the unbearable Argentine debt with private creditors and, above all, the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The latter component concerns $ 45 billion (more than 44 billion euros) and involves a series of commitments, particularly in matters of budgetary discipline. Mr. Guzman had presented his resignation on July 2.

Symbolically, the new Minister of the Economy started the presentation of his measures on August 3 by the firm promise to respect the target of 2.5 % budget deficit, established with the IMF. “We will make all the necessary corrections to hold our word,” assured Sergio Massa. At the head of an enlarged portfolio, encompassing the very strategic maroquins of productive development as well as agriculture and breeding, which gives it more power, Mr. Massa was quickly qualified as “superminister” by the Argentinian media. The sign, too, of the president’s continuous subsidence, Alberto Fernandez. “I am not a great anything, neither a magician, nor a Savior,” said Sergio Massa, a 50 -year -old lawyer with the long political trajectory.

“Return” Social assistance

“It is a pragmatic that can be defined as being at the center of the political spectrum. It benefits from relations both with the local establishment and in international scale, especially in the United States”, notes Diego Martinez Burzaco, research director within the Investment Company. “His first announcements are in the right direction, even if these are more intentions than concrete measures,” continues the economist.

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/Media reports.