Martín Guzmán

Martín Maximiliano Guzmán (born 12 October 1982) is an Argentine economist, currently serving as Minister of Economy in the cabinet of President Alberto Fernández.[1]

Martín Guzmán
Minister of Economy
Assumed office
10 December 2019
PresidentAlberto Fernández
Preceded byHernán Lacunza (as Minister of the Treasury)
Personal details
Born (1982-10-12) 12 October 1982
La Plata, Buenos Aires Province Argentina
NationalityArgentina
Political partyIndependent
Frente de Todos (since 2019)
Alma materNational University of La Plata
Brown University (PhD)

Early life and education

Martín Maximiliano Guzmán was born on 12 October 1982 in La Plata, Buenos Aires Province.[2] Guzmán studied at the National University of La Plata, where he graduated with a degree of Licenciate in Economics in 2005, then going on to receive a Master of Science in Economics in 2007.[3] In 2013 he earned a doctorate on Economics from Brown University.[4] His theoretical influences include Carlos Daniel Heymann and Joseph Stiglitz.[5]

Academics

At the Columbia Business School, Guzmán is an Associate Research Scholar at the Economics Division, director of Columbia University Initiative for Policy Dialogue's Debt Restructuring Program and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Globalization and Development, specializing on the fields of public debt, international macroeconomics and monetary economics.[6]

Minister of Economy
Martín Guzmán with Joseph Stiglitz, February 2020.

His first legislative initiative, the Social Solidarity and Productive Recovery Bill, was passed by Congress on 23 December.[7] The bill includes tax hikes on foreign currency purchases, agricultural exports, wealth, and car sales - as well as tax incentives for production. Amid the worst recession in nearly two decades, it provides a 180-day freeze on utility rates, bonuses for the nation's retirees and Universal Allocation per Child beneficiaries, and food cards to two million of Argentina's poorest families. It also gave the president additional powers to renegotiate debt terms – with Argentina seeking to restructure its US$100 billion debt with private bondholders and US$45 billion borrowed by Macri from the International Monetary Fund.[7]

Argentina defaulted again on May 22, 2020 by failing to pay $500 million on its due date to its creditors. Negotiations for the restructuring of $66 billion of its debt continue.[8]

The International Monetary Fund reported that the COVID-19 crisis would plunge Argentina's GDP by 9.9 percent, after the country's economy contracted by 5.4 percent in first quarter of 2020, with unemployment rising over 10.4 percent in the first three months of the year, before the lockdown started.[9][10][11]

On August 4, Guzmán reached an accord with the biggest creditors on terms for a restructuring of $65bn in foreign bonds, after a breakthrough in talks that had at times looked close to collapse since the country's ninth debt default in May.[12]

References
  1. "Alberto Fernández presentó a su gabinete de ministros y dijo que ya está negociando con el FMI". La Nación. 6 December 2019. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
  2. "Ministerio de Economía - Ministro". argentina.gob.ar (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 November 2020.
  3. Guzmán, Martín (10 December 2019). "Martín Guzman - CV" (PDF). Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  4. Lammertyn, Marina (6 December 2019). "Martín Guzman: Argentine whiz-kid economist and acolyte of Stiglitz". Financial Post. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
  5. Business, P. M. N. (6 December 2019). "Martín Guzman: Argentine whiz-kid economist and acolyte of Stiglitz | Financial Post". Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  6. "Martin M Guzman". Columbia Business School Directory. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
  7. "Fernández's economic emergency law wins approval in Senate". Buenos Aires Times. 23 December 2019.
  8. Politi, Daniel (22 May 2020). "Argentina Tries to Escape Default as It Misses Bond Payment". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  9. "IMF predicts Argentina's economy will slump 9.9% in 2020". Buenos Aires Time (Perfil). 25 June 2020. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
  10. "INDEC: Economy contracted by 5.4% in first quarter of 2020". Buenos Aires Time (Perfil). 23 June 2020. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
  11. "IMF predicts deeper global recession due to coronavirus pandemic". Reuters. 24 June 2020. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
  12. "Argentina strikes debt agreement after restructuring breakthrough". Financial Times. 4 August 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.