MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Who is Guido Sandleris, Argentina's Central Bank president after the surprise resignation of Caputo

Guido Sandleris, a figure close to Nicolás Dujovne, was until now the Secretary of Economic Policy of the Ministry of Finance

The resignation of Luis Caputo to the Presidency of the Central Bank of Argentina (BCRA), which has been reflected with surprise by the international media, occurs amid the trip of the Argentine President, Mauricio Macri, to New York to attend the Assembly General of the UN and with the mission of restoring the confidence of the international market in the Argentine economy. His predecessor, Guido Sandleris, receives a Central Bank when it is about to close an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“It is an honor for me to assume the Presidency of the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic and I want to thank the confidence that President Macri had in me to face this new stage,” said the new head of the Central Bank through a statement issued by the monetary entity on Tuesday.

Close to Nicolas Dujovne, the so far Secretary of Economic Policy of the Ministry of Finance has been working to close a new loan with the IMF. According to important official sources consulted by Clarín, the move would aim to avoid the difficulties faced by Caputo in the first loan with the IMF, who had replaced Federico Sturzenegger three months ago.

After being undersecretary of Finance in the province of Buenos Aires, Sandleris ascended to the management as secretary of Dujovne in the hand of the same minister not without first being the boss of Advisers of the Ministry of Finance.

Bachelor in economics, specialist in international economics, finance and macroeconomics, the new president of the BCRA had already worked in the State in 2000, when he joined the work teams of former Economy Minister José Luis Machinea. After this, Sandleris settled abroad and completed a master's degree at the London School of Economics and did a PhD in Economics at Columbia University.

The resignation of Luis Caputo was due to “personal reasons,” according to the Argentine monetary entity. However, there had been differences between Minister Dujovne and the now former head of the Central Bank in showing different versions of the real extra amount of dollars that the IMF will contribute to the third Latin American economy.

Among the immediate repercussions of the resignation -which occurred shortly before the opening of the markets- is the fall of the Argentine peso by 4.65% to open at 39.15 per US dollar after the announcement, according to exchange operators.

As a central objective, Sandleris asserts that the Central Bank must reduce inflation. “We will work to recover the stability and predictability of prices that the Argentine economy so badly needs,” he declared through the Central Bank.