Tuesday, November 19, 2013

OMG Argentina Turns Even More Leftist

Reuters reports:

President Cristina Fernandez's new cabinet picks confirmed a deepening of Argentina's left-leaning economic model rather than a policy switch needed to confront escalating inflation and dwindling foreign currency reserves.

Following her first public appearance since an October 8 operation to remove blood that pooled on her brain, Fernandez's spokesman announced late on Monday the promotion of leftist economist Axel Kicillof to economy minister and the replacement of the central bank director and agriculture minister. Kicillof has served as deputy economy minister.[...]

Latin America's No. 3 economy faces inflation that private economists estimate at 25 percent and a currency, the peso, that is 65 percent weaker on the informal market than at the government's official rate.

The government is also in the midst of a decade-long legal battle with holdout creditors and is blowing through foreign currency reserves to import energy and fund popular subsidies.

Kicillof, 42, steered the Argentine government's expropriation of a controlling stake in energy company YPF (YPFD.BA) from its former parent company, Spain's Repsol (REP.MC).

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