President-elect Macri promises to reboot Argentine economy
President-elect Mauricio Macri vowed on November 23 to get Argentina's stalled economy moving again but refrained from laying out specific measures until he gets to know the "real" state of the nation's accounts.
The day after winning the presidential run-off vote, the center-right leader was more incisive on other matters: He called on the Central Bank's top tier to step aside and said he wanted Venezuela suspended from the Mercosur trading bloc for human rights abuses.
The pro-business Macri campaigned on promises of sweeping economic reforms to tackle weak growth, high inflation and a yawning fiscal deficit after more than a decade of free-spending leftist populism.
But the challenges are enormous. At home, he lacks a majority in Congress and currency reserves are running perilously low. Abroad, the slowdown in China, weak commodity prices and a deepening recession in main trade partner Brazil all pose risks.
"Argentina's big problem today is that for four years there has been no growth, for four years no jobs have been created and now we have to get the country moving," Macri said.
He pledged to correct the errors of the outgoing leftist Peronist government. He called capital controls a mistake and said his government would restore the Central Bank's independence and overhaul national statistics.
Asked about his strategy for lifting currency controls, Macri urged patience saying he first needed to discover "what are the real economic numbers." He takes power Dec. 10 but said he needed more time before naming his cabinet.
Macri won 51.40% of votes while his ruling party rival Daniel Scioli drew 48.60%. The narrower-than-expected margin underlines the risks voters felt Macri's reform push will entail.