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Empresas y finanzas

Argentine president-elect to name ex-cenbank chief as finance minister - adviser


    BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine President-elect Mauricio Macri will name former central bank chief Alfonso Prat-Gay as his finance minister, a close adviser said on Wednesday.

    Asked in an interview on Radio Latina if Prat-Gay would be the next finance minister, Francisco Cabrera, who heads Macri's Pensar policy think tank, replied: "Yes, that's right."

    Prat-Gay, 50, headed central bank from 2002 to 2004 as the South American country hauled itself out of a devastating economic depression that plunged millions of Argentines into poverty.

    He won widespread acclaim for swiftly bringing down runaway inflation and championing central bank independence. Prat-Gay left the bank after losing the backing of then-president Nestor Kirchner, a leftist Peronist who wanted more control over the regulator and monetary policymaking.

    In Wednesday's interview, Cabrera also said that he himself would head the ministry of production and development.

    (Reporting by Jorge Otaola; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Hugh Bronstein, Louise Ireland and Lisa Von Ahn)