Mauricio Macri Elected President of Argentina

11/25/2015By the end of President-elect Mauricio Macri’s first four-year term, Argentina will have doubled wheat shipments and surpassed Russian Federation and Brazil as a corn exporter, by some estimates, as the abandonment of years-long trade restraints unleashes the full potential of the country’s vast Pampas farm belt.

Macri also said he would nullify a memorandum of understanding that Fernandez signed with Iranian officials in which she promised to try to lift an Interpol arrest order for 10 Iranians wanted in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires that killed 85.

They are now suffering from the collapse of those prices and Mr Macri’s victory could augur a rightward regional swing.

He said his presidency would not be about “revenge” or “settling scores”, but rather helping the country progress.

He has also promised closer relations with the United States, whose finance industry the FPV blames for the country’s 1998-2002 economic depression.

Macri named another economist, Rogelio Frigerio, as his interior minister and Julio Martinez will take the defense portfolio.

Prat-Gay, now a lawmaker in Argentina, worked from 1994 for J.P. Morgan in London and NY and later served as president of Argentina’s Central Bank.

Although Mr. Macri’s thin margin of victory, about three percentage points, means that he will have constraints on what he can do, his election is still significant since it will likely mean change for Argentina’s economic and foreign policies. “We know that the Argentine people have much to bring to the world, and we hope to find an agenda of cooperation”.

Many Argentine farmers who opposed Fernandez’s restrictions on their access to foreign markets applauded Macri’s election.

“To export, is to create jobs in Argentina, it needs to be an absolute priority”, Macri said during a panel at the University of Buenos Aires.

But Mercosur members and academics say it is unlikely to happen unless President Nicolas Maduro’s government doesn’t respect the results of Venezuela’s crucial December 6 congressional elections.

With foreign reserves around $26 billion, low for such a large economy, Macri’s administration would need a quick infusion of dollars to keep the government afloat and meet the demand of Argentines looking to trade their pesos.

“Argentina today doesn’t have credible information on the economy”, said Macri, criticizing the Fernandez administration for widely discredited statistics on everything from inflation to poverty rates.