The economic team already has a new Secretary of Finance, after the departure of Pablo Quirno last week. The Minister of Economy, Luis Caputoannounced that the person who will occupy the position will be Alexander Lewwho had already been in management as director and 2nd vice president of the BCRA.
Before taking up a role in public office, Lew served as CFO of YPF and other energy companies, and had an extensive career in international banks, Caputo recalled in his X account.
Lew’s entry into Finance comes after weeks of silence in the Ministry of Economy, where they assured that the appointment would depend on the presidency. At first, in Casa Rosada they spread the version that Quirno’s replacement would be the current Secretary of Economic Policy, Jose Luis Daza. Which gave rise to speculation as to whether both areas would be unified.
But Lew had already been an official in this administration. His name and surname were exposed when his resignation as director of the BCRA was published at the end of July 2024, a position held by the economist. Baltasar Felipe Romero Krause to complete a term of law that will expire on September 23, 2028.
“As of June 30, 2024, the resignation presented by the graduate in Economics is accepted. Alejandro Daniel Lew to the position of Director of the BCRA,” states the decree published in the Official Gazette at the time.
Although he would have been a key player in the Argentine economy prior to the 2023 runoff. In the environment of the former minister and presidential candidate, Sergio Massathey blamed him for the fuel shortage that occurred in the country in the previous weeks. And that is why at the end of November 2023 he was fired from his executive position at YPF at the request of the Ministry of Economy.
A position he accessed in mid-2020 when the Minister of Economy was Martin Guzman. At that time, I had the task of deploying the company’s strategy to face its debt commitments in dollars that it had ahead both that year and in 2021. Before, I had worked in energy companies 360° Energy and Genneiain addition to having experience at HSBC Bank Argentina and JP Morgan.
In the Record of Hearings there appears a single meeting that he had with the then Minister of Energy of Mauricio Macri, Javier Iguacel. It was on November 2, 2018 in legal representation of 360° Energy to talk about renewable energy. In response to the query of Infobae To those around Iguacel they assured that they have no relationship, they are just acquaintances.
This week, the new Secretary of Finance will have to carry out a key tender that will determine whether what happened in the previous one was a one-time event or if the economic team begins to decompress the monetary squeeze that it generated prior to the elections to control the dollar.
This week, according to the consulting firm Equilibra, payments in pesos for banks and private individuals are for an amount of $10.5 billion. In the last tender, the Government released almost $5 billion and analysts expect them to continue along those lines. “It should ratify its policy of lowering rates, which has already begun. It would be an important signal to seek to recover credit in November and December and point out the fall in economic activity,” highlighted the president of Analytica. Ricardo Delgado.
Then, the new Secretary of Finance will have another tender at the end of November, on the 26th for an amount greater than $14.1 billion and $12.6 billion on December 11 to end the year.
