MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Former Argentine economy minister admits errors

Lousteau warns about inflation and Mr. Kirchner negative influence

Argentine former Economy minister Martín Lousteau spoke to the press about his brief period in office for the first time and while maintaining his continued faith in President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, made some criticisms of the national government and called for the removal of Domestic Commerce Secretary Guillermo Moreno, who he described as “unerringly inefficient” and with whom he admitted having had a significant conflict.

In comments made to the Buenos Aires press Lousteau, whose reign as Economy minister lasted from December 10, 2007 to April 24, 2008, described new Cabinet Chief Sergio Massa as "a man with enormous capacity for work as well as with having huge versatility". Referring to the controversial Resolution 125, which introduced sliding-scale duties and sparked off a four-month conflict between the rural sector and the government, Lousteau recognized that "it contained technical errors, for which I take responsibility". The former Economy minister laid emphasis on the fact that he continues to believe in President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner but warned that "her government is too similar to that of (former president) Néstor Kirchner and now it's her own time because there are great opportunities for Argentina. She must inject her own personality, her vision and her ideas into her own government." With regard to Guillermo Moreno, Lousteau pulled no punches. "A democratic government can't have a senior official who does things the way Moreno does them and an intelligent government can't have a senior official as incompetent as Moreno. Moreno is unerringly inefficient; he destroys every area he gets involved with". BAH