Lacunza begins its management with the market in "shock"

Hernán Lacunza will formally start his era today at the head of the Ministry of Finance and will do so according to the guidelines that Mauricio Macri himself had prescribed yesterday: his priority mission will be to restore calm in the financial system, in collaboration with the Central Bank to tame the dollar and mitigate the impact of the new and drastic devaluation, and dispel the doubts of the IMF about the continuity of the program.

The objectives do not imply a sudden change in the economic policy of the national government, but rather the resolution of the urgent problems posed following the serious electoral setback that Macri faced during the primary elections against the presidential candidate. Frente de Todos, Alberto Fernández.

During a major summit, Lacunza reviewed the situation in Macri and its main slopes: Chief of Staff Marcos Peña; the Ministers of Production, Dante Sica, and the Interior, Rogelio Frigerio; the governor of Buenos Aires, Maria Eugenia Vidal; the head of the government of Buenos Aires, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, and the president of the Central Bank, Guido Sandleris.

"I was with the president who communicated to me the priorities of the leadership of the next few months," he simply revealed the election of Nicolás Dujovne's replacement to head the economic portfolio. The conclave that took place in the fifth Los Abrojos, owned by the Macri family in Los Polvorines, Buenos Aires, was held behind closed doors.

Lacunza will swear early today and give a press conference before the markets open. Guido Sandleris, head of the Centrale, will also express before the start of the exchange and the stock market. The goal is the same: to try to take a little calm at the beginning of a day supposed to be altered.

Flexibility

The arrival of the former Minister of the Economy of Buenos Aires to the national government comes at the most critical moment for the national government and when the economic reality involves a series of major conflicts that must be solved immediately : the economic front is the real The enemy of Macri is facing October and the bet is to fight to stay in power.

In principle, the hot post that Lacunza took involves trying to dispel fears about a future. fault, continue the emergency plan launched by the national executive to mitigate the impact of financial cimbronazo after the primary elections (the peso further devalued 19.9% ​​in just five days) and ensure the continuity of the program approved by Macri on IMF to stabilize the public accounts in exchange for a colossal credit to meet its financial commitments.

All this will require an immediate reaction because yesterday, Wall Street investors again punished Argentine badets. Bonds dropped to 6% and country risk jumped to 1,883 basis points, a level similar to the global crisis of 2018.

This is the first market reaction after the two major rating agency reports, Fitch Rating and Standard & Poor's, warn of growing opportunities for a future cessation of payments in Argentina.

It will be critical for the new minister to come up with strong arguments to eliminate these ghosts, as the Treasury is about to expire Treasury bills (Letes) which, until October 25, will be held. amount to $ 3,593 million. It is essential to renew a significant portion of these posts for the budget program and, with recent experience, the alarms have been triggered, since Dujovne had to leave the placement of these securities for the month of March of Next year.

Since last Saturday, when Macri confirmed his appointment, Lacunza launched a series of meetings to know the details of the situation. He badyzed the figures with Dujovne and also with Sandleris, with whom he had to articulate his efforts so that the strong devaluation of the last days does not deepen and that it has an impact as low as possible on the progression of the inflation.

With the numbers in hand, Lacunza sits down to badyze how to continue with the members of his small team. As confirmed by La Voz, Gustavo Lopetegui (Secretary of the Government of Energy), Rodrigo Pena (Secretary of the Treasury) and Santiago Bausili (Secretary of Finance) will continue and Sebastian Katz, Milagros Gismondi and Hugo Medina will join l & # 39; team.

Lacunza should refine its strategies as much as possible, as it must also dispel the doubts of the IMF's emissaries, who plan to arrive in Buenos Aires in the coming days to badess whether the latest events undermine the plan agreed with the IMF. Macri administration. The first element at stake is the next disbursement of more than $ 5,300 million planned for next month.