Argentina: the Secretary of Internal Trade resigns following a ministerial reorganization
Guillermo Hang was responsible for bringing down one of the highest inflations in the world
Argentina’s Secretary of Internal Trade, Roberto Feletti, tendered his resignation after his office was transferred from the Ministry of Productive Development to the Ministry of Economy.
In other words, Feletti stopped reporting to Minister Matías Kulfas to have Minister Martín Guzmán as the new boss. Feletti reportedly quit over technical disagreements with Guzmán, who has already been heavily criticized by extremist Kirchnerians.
Feletti will be replaced by the director of the Central Bank (BCRA), Guillermo Hang, who served in different areas of the Ministry of Economy from 2008 to 2015 and joined the BCRA when President Alberto Fernández took office.
“The most reasonable and professional attitude on my part is to allow Minister Martín Guzmán to have the freedom to select officials who share the defined path and the established program,” Feletti stressed in his resignation letter.
He added that the ministerial reorganizations opened a new stage in which Guzmán will be “in charge of economic policy in a comprehensive way”.
Feletti also said that his career “has been marked by consistency and conviction regarding the policies that I have applied and defended from the various places that I have had the responsibility to administer”.
“I have never put the exercise of a position or my personal interest before political convictions, and this will not be the exception,” he added.
He also insisted on “the need to decouple the price of food globally from that paid by Argentine men and women”.
Hang will now be tasked with reducing inflation and bringing prices under control. He graduated in economics from the University of La Plata. He was also an advisor to the IBRD (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development), World Bank; Public Works and Housing, Ministry of Interior of Argentina (2016-2017); and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
In addition, he has been a researcher and visiting researcher at the Economic and Financial Center for Development of Argentina and has written articles for different research centers.
