The Alberto Fernández government announced this Sunday (3) Silvina Batakis as Argentina’s new Minister of Economy, replacing Martín Guzmán, who had resigned the day before.
Batakis, 53, ran the economy of the province of Buenos Aires from 2011 to 2015, under the Daniel Scioli government – Argentina’s current ambassador to Brazil. She currently served as the provincial secretary in the Ministry of the Interior.
A graduate in economics from the University of La Plata and an MBA in environmental economics from the University of York (England), Batakis is close to Argentina’s vice president, Cristina Kirchner, who was critical of Guzmán’s work in the ministry. The country is experiencing an escalation in inflation, which in June reached 60.7% in the 12-month rate.
On Saturday (2), under pressure from the Kirchnerist area of the government, Guzmán announced his resignation, in a long letter published on social networks.
His administration was marked by negotiations with the IMF (International Monetary Fund) in an attempt to bring the country into balance in public accounts in 2024.
A specialist in foreign debt renegotiation processes, Guzmán was tasked with delivering a new payment schedule for Argentine bonds that Mauricio Macri’s government had left in default. On August 31, 2020, after months of intense negotiations and eight months after taking office, the minister successfully closed the dollar debt restructuring.
The success of this negotiation ended up being hampered by the economic consequences of the pandemic. Argentina’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) fell by almost 10% in 2020, while the renegotiation was postponed.
This renegotiation also marks the beginning of the deterioration in the relationship between Fernández and Kirchner. In a speech on Saturday, she said that “the fiscal deficit is not responsible for inflation.”
According to a Management & Fit survey, inflation is now the main concern of 43.4% of Argentines. In 2020, this share represented 9.9%.
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