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On Monday, Argentina's new Minister of Economy, Silvina Batakis, said she would maintain the economic program President Alberto Fernández set as a goal.
"Convinced that Argentina's course has to do with the fiscal management of our accounts, we have to achieve the economic program that the president has been setting," she said in a brief appearance before journalists without admitting questions at the seat of government, the Casa Rosada, after being sworn in on Monday afternoon.
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The new head of the economic portfolio said it would also be a priority for the country to have more exports and for the Argentine peso to be revalued.
"That is achieved through getting more reserves (in the Central Bank) and generating more jobs throughout the country," with a federal perspective, she said.
In addition to giving continuity to the economic program, the new minister referred to the "solvency of the Argentine State" as the second axis of her work.
"I believe in fiscal balance and we have to move forward in that direction, with the liberation of all the productive forces of the country," she concluded before retiring.
The new minister, who until now served as Secretary of Provinces within the Ministry of the Interior, met early Monday with the head of state in a meeting that lasted three and a half hours at the presidential residence in the municipality of Olivos, in the province of Buenos Aires.
Batakis then met at the Ministry of Economy with the President of the Central Bank (BCRA), Miguel Pesce, to coordinate the transition and the economic management to be carried out by their respective agencies.
Before being sworn in, the new minister met with the person who was until Saturday, the head of the economic portfolio, Martín Guzmán, to order the handover.
Although it is a national holiday in the US for Independence Day, the Argentine peso depreciated almost 9 percent in informal circuits on Monday, while Argentine bonds depreciated by the same percentage.
Throughout the country, many suppliers and traders stopped trading as they waited for the economic and political situation to stabilize after the resignation of the then minister.
Guzmán, who accompanied this government since its inauguration in December 2019 and was one of the ministers on whom the head of state relied the most, announced his resignation on Saturday through social networks without explaining the reasons.
His resignation is explained by the disagreements between the president and the vice president on the economic course of the country, discrepancies that deepened in recent weeks around the removal of energy subsidies to meet the goals agreed in the program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to refinance a loan of $44 billion.
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