The government announced in a press release that Sergio Massa will be a new “super” Economy Minister

ARGENTINA - In Brief 29 Jul 2022 by Esteban Fernández Medrano

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After Thursday´s market closure, the presidential press office published a brief yet significant statement, informing that “the Ministries of Economy, Productive Development and Agriculture … will be unified, also including relations with international … credit organizations. And that the new ministry will be in charge of Sergio Massa.” Sergio Massa had been speculated to be the main candidate to become Economy Minister, or Chief of Cabinet when Martín Guzman resigned earlier this month. But at that moment his “almost sure” candidacy was switched for that of Silvia Batakis (SB), when President Alberto Fernandez (AF) contacted Vice-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK), to coordinate Guzman’s replacement. Admittedly, Batakis´ initial election had been a surprise, and the market response to her assignment has been rather cold and expectant, despite her initial promises of continuing with the IMF agreement and implementing the needed fiscal adjustment. Furthermore, according to local news, over the last days, Peronist governors had joined CFK's request towards AF, to be more proactive in this crisis management and to consider more significant cabinet changes (while governors simultaneously lobbied to maintain former governor Manzur´s as Chief of Cabinet). Therefore, Bataki´s tenure in the Ministry of Economy was not precisely written in stone. This said the fact that AF let go of SB in less than a month, and at the precise moment when she returned from Washington, where she met (in allegedly fruitful conversations) IMF Managing Director Kristaline Georgieva to ratify the implementation of the EFF and even gave presentations to US investors to transmit her medium-...