 De la Rúa's first Minister of Economy was the progressivist José Luis Machinea, who was proposed by Alfonsín and Álvarez. Menem had left a deficit of 5 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) points that Machinea tried to compensate with higher taxes to people with the highest incomes, and a reduction of the highest retirement pensions. The deficit was reduced but the crisis continued. The scandal over the labor law and the resignation of Álvarez increased the country risk, and made Argentina's access to international credit more difficult. The government negotiated a US $ 38 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) line of credit to prevent a default and allow the economy to grow again. Machinea also proposed to appoint the former minister Cavallo as the new president of the Central Bank of Argentina. However, Machinea was unable to achieve the levels of austerity negotiated with the IMF and resigned a few days later. The Minister of Defense Ricardo López Murphy became the new Minister of Economy. During the election camapain, De la Rúa had promised not to appoint him to that ministry, but with the ongoing crisis he did not want to risk problems caused by a temporary lack of minister. López Murphy announced a stricter austerity plan, with reduction to the health and education budgets. His plan was rejected by street demonstrations and the Frepaso, so De la Rúa declined it. Murphy resigned after being minister for 16 days.
