BUENOS AIRES, Aug 18, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Argentina’s Economy Minister
Nicolas Dujovne resigned Saturday after a week of economic tumult caused by
President Mauricio Macri’s defeat in a primary poll ahead of a general
election.
Dujovne will be replaced by Hernan Lacunza, economy minister for Buenos
Aires province, Argentine media reported.
The country’s peso ended the week having shed 20 percent of its value
against the US dollar as both Fitch and S&P cut the South American country’s
long-term credit rating, citing increased uncertainty and a rising risk of
default.
Dujovne said, in a letter posted on the website of La Nacion newspaper, he
was “convinced that, under the circumstances, the (government’s) management
needs significant renewal in the economic arena.”
He leaves in the middle of a deepening economic crisis following last
Sunday’s primary elections in which market-friendly Macri was dealt a huge
blow in his bid for re-election when he polled 15 points less than center-
left Peronist candidate Alberto Fernandez.
The primaries serve as a bellwether for general elections in October.
Dujovne’s announcement marks the first change in Macri’s cabinet since voters
went to the polls.
Fitch, which downgraded Argentina’s credit rating two notches to “CCC,”
said the center-right’s defeat “increases risks of a break from the policy
strategy of the current administration of Mauricio Macri guided by a program
with the IMF.”
Fernandez, now the clear favorite to unseat Macri, has questioned the
reform program backed by a $56 billion rescue package from the International
Monetary Fund.
Standard & Poor’s dropped Argentina’s rating a single grade from “B” to
“B-.”
“My resignation is consistent with a government and political space that
listens to the people and that acts accordingly,” Dujovne said, in a clear
message to the Argentine electorate, which still has two months left until
voting in the presidential elections.
The country is currently in a recession and posted 22 percent inflation
for the first half of the year — one of the highest rates in the world —
but the IMF said Macri’s reform program was beginning to yield results.
The new economy minister will have the difficult task of trying to instill
peace of mind in the markets while simultaneously dealing with the country’s
recession in the midst of Macri’s uphill election battle.
In Argentina 32 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.
The country has annual inflation of more than 50 percent