Isaac Alfie has replaced Alejandro Atchugarry as Uruguay’s finance minister, despite a turnaround in the Uruguayan economy this year.
Mr Atchugarry stepped down on 19 August, citing personal reasons, but some commentators believe his departure is tied to ambitions to run for the presidency in elections next year. Mr Alfie had been the government’s director of macro-economic policy and is regarded as an orthodox neo-liberal.
Over the past three years, Uruguay has suffered the worst economic crisis in its history, parallelling the problems in Argentina, its main trading partner. The economy contracted last year by 10.8% but has managed to turn around this year, with economists predicting growth of up to 8%. The Argentine economy has also rebounded this year with a knock-on effect on Uruguay.
Uruguay’s president Jorge Batlle said: “In the middle of this country’s worst financial crisis, I asked Mr Atchugarry to take on the job because the economy ministry had to be run by a politician. Now, it is the end of the political period and its time for a more technical approach. Mr Alfie will provide that.”
Mr Alfie said: “My priority will be to reinforce the reignition of the economy and to put the economy fully back on the path of development.”
However, Guillermo Mondino, head of economic consultancy Macrovision, said: “I was surprised by the resignation, given that the worst of the economic problems are over. Perhaps Mr Atchugarry never really wanted the job in the first place and saw himself only as finance minister during the emergency period.”
Mr Alfie said that there would be no major changes in economic policy. The US administration welcomed his appointment.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) resumed financial reimbursements – valued at more than $1.7bn – to Uruguay in March this year after tortuous negotiations since September last year. It stopped the disbursements last autumn following serious disagreements about fiscal targets.
Mr Mondino added: “In July this year, the IMF also criticised Uruguay for not completely meeting more recent fiscal targets but commentators say that the dispute was minor and could not have precipitated Mr Atchugarry’s resignation.”
