Rubinstein assumes the post of Deputy Minister of Economy and prepares to meet the IMF

Gabriel Rubinstein will re-pack your bags. After returning from a trip to the US 11 days ago, the economist began preparing days ago to fly to Washington this week or next time to meet IMF officials. that will be one of his main posts as Deputy Minister of Economy, job that had been offered to him at the beginning of August, but in which it was confirmed only this Sunday by Sergio Massa, afterwards apparently unlocks the interior in Front of All.

The consultant was negotiator before the Fund and representative of the Ministry of Economy at the Central Bank during Roberto Lavagna’s administration between 2002 and 2005. If up to now Sergio Massa’s team had had political contacts with the organization, Rubinstein will deal with anticipated technical exchange. That is to say, of the numbers and objectives in front of the negotiation of a second outlay of 4,000 million dollars, key to covering the debt with the IMF.

The last meeting in Washington with the head of the Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, was conducted at the end of July by the Minister of Economy Silvina Batakis, who, upon returning from that trip, learned at the airport that she had been replaced by Massa. Parallel dollars have since fallen, but the Central Bank has continued to lose reserves. Just last week he went back to buying currencies, although alternative prices have risen again. In this unstable environment, Rubinstein’s landing was accelerated.

Massa announced it this Sunday as Secretary for Economic Planning, 18 days after hiring in Economics. Lavagna advised him, but his appointment was blocked when the economist’s harsh tweets against Cristina Kirchner became known. In the middle, the minister tried Emmanuel Álvarez Agis, Diego Bossio, Marco Lavagna and Marina Dal Poggeto, but none accepted. Eventually, Rubinstein got the final wink and apologized in a tweet for hers “offensive comments”, not to mention the vice president.

It is expected to carry an imprint of “taxation system” strengthen the announced regime of reducing energy subsidies, freezing staff hiring in the state and controlling cash. Strictly speaking, in the next few days a measure will be known that curbs employment in public companies. Work is also being done on the reimbursement of budget credit surpluses to the economy so that “no one spends more” and a decree ordering the “single box”, already announced by Batakis.

Rubinstein will be fundamental in coordinating the measures of the economic team, which also includes the chief advisor Leonardo Madcur, the secretary to the Treasury Raúl Rigo, the head of customs Guillermo Michel and the candidate for the vice president of the Central Bank, Lisandro Cleri. For number two, the “ABC” of a fit passes through the fiscal aspect and the reduction of spending is a condition for lowering inflation, including cuts to social plans, pensions, public works or provincial funds.

Passing through the BCRA under the management of Raúl Alfonsín, the consultant is well regarded in the financial cityalbeit without the weight of some of its predecessors. Domingo Cavallo had Juan Llach, José Luis Machinea Miguel Bein, Remes Lenicov Jorge Todesca and Lavagna Guillermo Nielsen.. Now Massa, a lawyer by profession, will have a macroeconomist who will give substance to his announcements. “The deputy minister is the one who has in mind a model of general equilibrium and liquidity management,” said a former minister of the economy.

The big unknown is to what extent you will be able to implement your ideas and what resources you will have. On the eve of his arrival in room 526, his secretary suffered the amputation of at least 40 employees: the Undersecretary for Regional and Sectoral Planning has moved on to the Secretariat of Development Planning and Federal Competitiveness, in charge of Jorge Neme. “We are in a hurry before they request them from another area,” one of Neme’s advisers told the undersecretary’s employees on Wednesday.

Rubinstein also knows that he must have political support, especially from Cristina Kirchner and La Cámpora, who in the last few hours have come out to paint the slogan of a fixed sum of 30 thousand dollars, before negotiating the minimum wage. “There is a perception of Kirchnerism that fiscal adjustment is recessive and harmful to people and there is not enough awareness that inflation works like a tax, so it gets paid “, the economist said in early August.