Argentina News: Macri Appoints New Finance Minister & Central-Bank Chief

Argentine President, Mauricio Macri, selects former JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive, Alfonso Prat-Gay, to roll back a decade's worth of state intervention in the economy as the country's new finance manager.

Prat-Gay's appointment initiates the government's new line of projects for the country when Macri and his cabinet take office on December 10, after winning the elections on November 22.

According to Bloomberg, Macri's administration vowed to "open up" Argentina's economy and diversify decision-making by reducing the economy ministry's current power, granted by outgoing President, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

This, says the outlet, would be where the new finance manager comes in, as Prat-Gay would be playing a "key role" in the new administration's economic cabinet that is comprised of six ministries.

"They're building a great team with solid technical grasp, it's way superior to what we've had previously. It's a good signal, this team is going to promote trust. They're people with a great track record and reputation in the market," Explorador Capital Management money manager Fernando Jasnis told the outlet.

On Wednesday, Prat-Gay revealed to the press how the new government would also be introducing a new set of laws to the Congress during its first week of taking office.

"The economy we will inherit is not in a good shape," he told Reuters, adding that the central bank acted solely on the outgoing president's command for the past years, instead of maintaining independence.

He also revealed that Macri wanted to meet with Fernandez on Tuesday evening to get a briefing of what they are getting into before taking office, but left empty handed.

"We would have liked to have had a better understanding of how things stand before Dec. 10. The meeting ... was not as good as it should have been," Reuters quoted him saying during an interview with Radio La Red.

During the end of the presidential race, Prat-Gay, who headed Argentina's central bank, spoke about how Argentina's multi-tiered exchange rate should be unified and that capital controls over the economy simply "destroyed local economies, exports and a good part of industry."

After Mauricio Macri narrowly won the Argentina presidential race, ratings agency, Moody's Investor Service, decided to raise the country's credit outlook because the low foreign reserves would definitely add pressure to the negotiations with United States creditors.

Despite this challenge, Prat-Gay remains determined to overhaul the challenging economic scenario the new administration would inherit, even with the 30-year deficit and nine-year low reserves with his fellow Macri's Cabinet members.