Argentines Await Choice for Finance Post --- Presidential Favorite Has Three Main Contenders To Lead Economic Plan
BUENOS AIRES -- Fernando de la Rua is favored to win Argentina's presidential race Sunday, and his choice for the Finance Ministry will be an anxiously awaited signal on the course of the country's economic policy.</br></br>Argentina's finance minister is second in importance to the president. The country doesn't have enough savings to finance its own growth or debt load, so the finance minister must constantly bolster the confidence of international investors.</br></br>One of the first challenges faced by the new economic team will be the financing of about $16 billion in Argentine debt in global markets next year. The second challenge is to regain momentum on economic reforms. The Argentine peso is fixed to the U.S. dollar, and without additional policies that enhance productivity or lower costs, Argentine companies risk losing competitiveness. Mr. De la Rua's top pick for the Finance Ministry post appears to be 53-year-old Jose Luis Machinea, who heads a center-left think tank in Argentina. Mr. Machinea has a doctorate in economics from the University of Minnesota, and his peers say he is a smart economist steeped in economic theory.</br></br>Nevertheless, he is overshadowed by Argentina's instability during the late 1980s when he was central bank president. He left that post in March 1989, and shortly thereafter, following a failed stabilization plan, Argentine inflation spiraled out of control. Mr. Machinea doesn't have the unqualified support of Argentine businessmen or international investors, but he is working to gain their confidence.</br></br>There are concerns about whether his center-left tendencies might translate into an acceptance of mild forms of protectionism or subsidies, but few doubt his macroeconomic orthodoxy. "He wouldn't generate applause," says Aldo Abram, general-director of Exante, an economic consulting firm here, but "it wouldn't worry me a bit if he was minister."