Martín Guzmán
Martín Guzmán is an Argentine economist, currently serving as Minister of Economy in the Alberto Fernández administration.First years
Guzmán studied at the National University of La Plata, where he graduated with a degree of Licenciate in Economics and a Master of Science in Economics. Also, he has a doctorate from Brown University. His theoretical influences include Carlos Daniel Heymann and Joseph Stiglitz.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.Minister of Economy
His first legislative initiative, the Social Solidarity and Productive Recovery Bill, was passed by Congress on 23 December. 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.
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.
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.
