In office since December 2019, the young economist negotiated with international bodies the restructuring of Argentine, massive debt. It was nevertheless criticized by the left of the government coalition.
Le Monde with AFP
A new phase of uncertainty opens in Argentina. The Minister of the Economy Martin Guzman, main craftsman of the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last March on the refinancing of Argentine debt, announced on Saturday July 2, after two and a half years in office.
“I am writing to you to present my resignation from the post of Minister of the Nation Economy, which you have honored for me since December 10, 2019,” said Martin Guzman in a letter to the president center left Alberto Fernandez, inviting the head of state to designate a successor. The Argentinian president, who again this week had given his noted support to the Minister, had not yet expressed himself on Saturday at the end of the day.
Martin Guzman, a 39 -year -old economist, a former student and close to the Nobel of economics Joseph Stiglitz, had been for two years on the front line of negotiations, first with the creditors of the Paris club, then with the IMF To restructure the Argentine debt, amounting to nearly $ 45 billion, legacy of a loan contracted in 2018 by the previous government of the Liberal Mauricio Macri – The most important loan in the history of the fund.
Guzman criticized on his left
The agreement between the 3
The IMF had so far given its approval to the macroeconomic orientations of Argentina since the agreement, with a first successful passage exam last week, and $ 4 billion spent accordingly. But Minister Guzman was regularly implicated by the peronist left wing of the government coalition, embodied by the vice-president (and ex-head of state from 2007 to 2015) Cristina Kirchner.
This fringe reproached the Minister an excess of zeal in controlling the budget deficit, and the monetary program, when the time and conditions of Argentina, with 37 % of poverty, would ask, according to this vision, more social generosity. These criticisms have increased since the mid-term elections at the end of 2021, which have earned the power coalition to lose the majority in the Senate.
Martin Guzman defended for his part a pragmatic line of relative expenditure, grooming of numerous subsidies (in energy in particular) and a patient reconstruction of reserves, thanks to found growth (+ 10 % in 2021 after 3 years of recession, + 6 % over the last 12 months). The Minister had repeatedly regretted the poor signals transmitted to the markets by these dissonances within the government coalition “Frente de Todos”.
and Martin Guzman returns to this lack of consensual support for in his resignation letter, believing that for his successor, “it will be essential to work on a political agreement within the government coalition”. He reaffirms his “deep conviction and confidence in [his] vision of the path that Argentina should follow”, and warns that it will be in the future “essential to continue to strengthen macroeconomic coherence, including budgetary, monetary policies , financing, exchange rate and energy “.
The IMF, who has often greeted Guzman as an interlocutor, has not yet reacted to his resignation. This could have an impact on confidence, already not in good shape, markets vis-à-vis Argentina. For political analyst Carlos Fara, the departure of Guzmán means “failure and mat for the autonomy of the president” Fernandez. “The resignation will have a very negative effect on the markets,” he told the Agency France Presse. Even if the president and the vice-president reach a consensus on the conduct of the economy, everything will now be conditioned by the pressure of Cristina Kirchner.