(ANSA) - BUENOS AIRES, 04 JUL - The 53-year-old Silvina Batakisla is the new Minister of Economy of Argentina.
Former Head of Economics for the province of Buenos Aires and a member of the Peronist mainstream, Batakis was appointed by President Alberto Fernandez following the surprise resignation of Martin Guzman on Saturday.
The head of state had been carrying out consultations throughout the day to find a replacement for Guzman, the architect of the March agreement on the restructuring of the Argentine debt concluded last March.
Acclaimed for saving Argentina, Latin America's third largest economy, from insolvency, Guzman was in favor of a smooth transition to balanced budgets.
But he was regularly opposed by the left wing of the ruling coalition.
In the important province of Buenos Aires (15 million inhabitants), Batakis was the minister of the economy of the governor Daniel Scioli, former vice president of the former state chief Nestor Kirchner and close to the current vice president Cristina Kirchner.
The appointment appears in this sense as a sign of the growing weight of the Kirchnerist camp in the coalition of the center-left in power.
In addition to the commitments to the IMF, Batakis will have to face chronic inflation, at 29.3% over the first five months of 2022 and 60.7% over the last 12 months.
(HANDLE).
