By Teresa Rivas
Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri is making a number of changes in his attempt to right the South American nation’s economy, from making government data more reliable and accurate to investing a half a billion dollars in shale oil.
Marcos Brindicci/Reuters
Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri
Although Macri’s presidency is still in its infancy, and pundits are far from unanimous about the impact of his policies, he hasn’t shied away from making big moves, as The Wall Street Journal’s Ryan Dube reports:
In his first two weeks as president, Mr. Macri has removed most agricultural export taxes, cut personal income taxes, and announced a $500 million shale-oil investment. He has also packed his cabinet with business executives such as Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay,who once ran the currency research unit at J.P. Morgan Chase Co. (JPM), and Energy Minister Juan José Aranguren, who was the CEO of Shell Argentina.
The jury may still be out on his policies, but will likely be welcomed by major energy producers in the area, like Petrobras Argentina (PZE) and YPF (YPF), especially as oil continues its slide. Petrobras Argentina has the rare distinction among oil names of being up about 11% for the year, while YPF is down about 40%. Both were trading lower at recent check.
The Global X MSCI Argentina exchange-traded fund (ARGT) is 1.4% lower in recent trading.
See related posts, “7 Emerging Markets To Watch In 2016: Argentina, Saudi Turkey,” “3 Shocking Stats From Argentina’s ‘Dirty’ Currency Scheme,” “Argentina Peso Tumbles, Banks Rally, As Currency Controls Lift” “Argentina: Will Macri Election Bring Recession?,” and “Argentina Braces For Peso Devaluation Under New President.”