MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mathematician will be responsible for putting Venezuelan inflation back on its feet

Maths PhD Merentes replaces Marxist Giordani, also known as ‘the Monk’

President Nicolas Maduro replaced Venezuelan Finance Minister Jorge Giordani, appointing central bank chief Nelson Merentes in his place two days after being sworn in as Hugo Chavez's successor.

It will be the third stint as finance minister for Merentes, a mathematician by training who is seen as a more pragmatic economist than his ideologically driven counterpart Giordani, a Marxist academic who was nicknamed “the Monk.”

“I've great faith in Nelson Merentes. We've known each other for many years,” Maduro said in a nationally televised address.

He will be heading an Economic vice-presidency specially created for Merentes, who will have full control over the economy to fight inflation and ensure supply of goods. He will be supported by Andres Izarra in Tourism and Jesse Chacon in Electric Energy, another ‘disaster’ area with recurrent blackouts throughout the country.

In his speech, he also confirmed Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez, Defence Minister Diego Molero, Foreign Minister Elias Jaua and Vice President Jorge Arreaza in their current roles.

Some new faces and ‘names’ include Ivan Gil in Agriculture; Reinaldo Iturriza in Communes; Alejandra Benitez in Sports and Isabel Iturria, Health. The Interior ministry will now be called, Interior, Justice and Peace and will be the responsibility of Miguel Rodriguez Torres.

Merentes faces private sector complaints about lack of access to hard currency, persistent shortages of basic goods from flour to medicines, and one of the highest inflation rates in the Americas.

“We need to control inflation, the speculative factors that influence prices, ensure that there are more domestic products, and an economy that can move,” Maduro said.

Giordani, who had been finance minister since 2008, was seen as one of the architects of the OPEC nation's complicated system of price and currency controls.

He will now become planning minister, a senior position in the economic Cabinet that Giordani held on and off in Chavez's government.

Merentes, who has been president of the central bank since 2009, completed a Ph.D. in mathematics in Budapest in 1991 before returning to Venezuela as a university professor.

Between government jobs, Merentes ran a polling organization that produced data that normally favoured Chavez, who died on March 5 after a two-year battle with cancer.

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles has refused to recognize Maduro's narrow win in an April 14 election triggered by his death, and alleges that there were thousands of voting irregularities. He was dismissive of Maduro's new Cabinet.

“Members of the 'for now' government are being announced,” Capriles said on Twitter. “Result: more of the same.”