Prat-Gay fired as Argentine Finance Minister after one year
Last edited Mon Dec 26, 2016, 06:20 PM - Edit history (1)
Argentine Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay was fired on Monday after just one year in the post as a long-heralded recovery in the economy fails to materialize.
The ministry he headed will now be split into two, with close Macri family associate Luis Caputo, who was finance secretary, heading the new Finance Ministry and Nicolás Dujovne, a co-founder of President Mauricio Macri's right-wing think tank Pensar, overseeing the Economy Ministry.
President Macri requested Prat-Gays resignation following disagreements over economic policy, Cabinet Chief Marcos Pea said. The economy has sunk into recession this year, defying Macris forecast that it would return to growth in the second half. The inflation rate has likewise defied Macri's projections of "20 to 25%," rising from 24% in November 2015 to 45% currently.
"Economic policies were very erratic, with bad results," said Eduardo Hecker, a former securities regulator who now heads consultancy DEL. By firing Prat-Gay, Macri has found the perfect scapegoat for this situation.
Gross domestic product fell 3.8% in the third quarter from a year earlier, the statistics agency reported, as rising prices eroded peoples purchasing power; it had grown by 2.5% in 2015, the year before Macri took office.
At: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-26/prat-gay-resigns-as-argentine-finance-minister-after-one-year
