Argentina's Mauricio Macri Faces a Delicate Dance

Mauricio Macri celebrated his inauguration last week with a victory jig at the Casa Rosada presidential palace in Buenos Aires. But the time for dancing is over for Argentina’s new president. He must now fulfil his promise to fix a failing economy.

“Right now there is no sense of a climate of crisis. But the challenges they are inheriting are major, and there could even be some unpleasant surprises,” warned Miguel Kiguel, a local economist.

Mr. Macri’s economic inheritance is “much more complex” than most Argentines realise, he says. Among the most urgent and delicate problems faced by the new government are the reserves at the central bank, which have fallen to “dangerously” low levels in order to prop up the overvalued peso, said Mr Kiguel….

…Mr. Macri’s surprise victory in Argentina has created optimism within the country and internationally that the nation’s long estrangement from global capital markets can be ended, according to Susan Segal, president of the Americas Society/Council of the Americas.

“This is a historic moment for Argentina,” she said….

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