Argentina: Is Massa the right answer to the wrong question?

Argentina faces yet another financial crisis and has brought in a new ‘super-minister’ to try to calm the market and placate the IMF. While he will find a sympathetic ear at the fund, not many other international investors are listening anymore.

The appointment of Sergio Massa as Argentina’s third finance minister in the space of a month has seen the country’s economy step back from a full-blown financial crisis. However, financiers see little prospect of any fundamental improvement in Argentina’s dire economic situation.

“The appointment was a political response to the confusion in the markets that was pushing Argentina closer to a crisis. However, even an empowered finance minister who enjoys political backing from the administration is going to face the same intractable problem – it’s impossible to move the economy forward to multiple goals at the same time,” says Martin Tobal, director of the macro-financial risk analysis directorate at Banco de Mexico, speaking to Euromoney in a personal capacity.

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