Argentine Central Bank Chief to Resign as Fernandez Takes Over

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Argentina’s central bank President Guido Sandleris announced Wednesday that he’ll resign from his post Dec. 10 as President-elect Alberto Fernandez is expected to name a new economic team later this week.

Sandleris was the third central bank chief during President Mauricio Macri’s economically tumultuous time in office. Previously a university professor and Economy Ministry deputy, Sandleris took the reins of monetary policy in September 2018 as Macri’s government renegotiated its record $56 billion credit line with the International Monetary Fund. Monetary policy underwent several changes during Sandleris’ tenure.

In Argentina, the central bank isn’t legally independent from the executive branch and the president is effectively allowed to appoint or fire the institution’s leader at will. The central bank has had 61 presidents in the 84 years since its founding. Fernandez plans to announce his cabinet Friday.

Sandleris lamented that the central bank couldn’t tame inflation on his watch, the absence of basic consensus on economic policy in Argentina’s political sphere and the bank’s lack of independence.

Central bank independence “is one of the important factors that has contributed to the majority of countries in the world living with low inflation for awhile now,” Sandleris said. In Argentina, “this doesn’t happen.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Gillespie in Buenos Aires at pgillespie29@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.net, Robert Jameson

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