page_title: Presidency of Mauricio Macri
section_title: Economic policy
hierarchical_section_title: Presidency of Mauricio Macri / Domestic affairs / Economic policy
caption_attribution_description: Español: Macri arribando a el World Economic Forum 2016 en la ciudad suiza de Davos
context_page_description: The Presidency of Mauricio Macri began on 10 December 2015, when Mauricio Macri was sworn into office on 10 December 2015 to a four-year term as President of Argentina. Macri took office following a 51.34% to 48.66% runoff ballotage win over Daniel Scioli in the 2015 general election. He is Argentina's first democratically elected non-Radical or Peronist president since 1916. In elections of October 2019, he lost his re-election bid for a second term and was succeeded by Alberto Fernández as president. Macri is also the first incumbent president in Argentina and South America's history to be unseated by a challenger and not reaching a second term.
context_section_description: One of the first changes to economic policy from the Macri administration, just seven days after he had taken office, was to remove the capital controls that had been in place for four consecutive years. The move signified a 30% devaluation of the peso, and was met with both criticism and praise.
  The Macri's administration eliminated export taxes on agricultural products (wheat, corn, sunflower, meat and fish), minerals (metallic and non-metallic) and certain industrial products; while it promised to lower the tariff on soy 5% every year.
  For the next year, he eliminated the Advance Affidavits of Importation (an import control program) and extended Careful Pricing (a price control program) for six months.
  Since 2016, Macri began the removal of energy subsidies (for electricity, gas and water) and transport subsidies (for bus, train and subway), which caused a huge increase in prices. He avoided to use a shock therapy and introduced the changes gradually.
  On January 19, Macri attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland with Sergio Massa and part of his cabinet looking for investments. He had meetings with various business representatives, politicians and journalists. Some of them were US Vice President Joe Biden, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, the founder of Virgin Group Richard Branson, CEO of Google Eric Schmidt, the Queen of the Netherlands, President and CEO Coca-Cola, Muhtar Kent among others. It was the first time that Argentina participates since 2003. The last president was Eduardo Duhalde.
  Macri wanted to negotiate with holdouts and end the default to return to the international capital markets. Argentina faced a court hearing in New York on April 13. The court upheld judge Thomas P. Griesa's ruling and allowed Argentina to pay the 2005 and 2010 bondholders. The payment, made with a bond sale, was the end of the Argentine default.
  One of Macri's promises during the campaign was the elimination of Income tax for workers. Macri had not fulfilled his promise, and it was not in the government's plan to eliminate the Income tax in the future either.
  Political intervention in the INDEC figures ended, and the IMF declared in November 2016 that Argentine statistics were again in accordance with international standards.
  Among the most notorious vulnerabilities of the administration was an extremely high inflation rate: it was 40% in 2016 (while the Central Bank expected an inflation rate of 17% for 2017, 10% for 2018 and 5% for 2019). 
  Other vulnerabilities included the unemployment rate close to 9%, as well as the sharp rise in the current-account deficit, which is likely to be around 3% to 4% of GDP in 2018 thanks to an over-valued currency.
  Between 2017 and 2018 the government cut import tariffs on capital goods and eliminated tariffs on the importation of technology products to encourage investment.
  The deregulation area allowed the incorporation of low cost airlines, such as JetSmart, Norwegian and Flybondi.
  Inflation continued to be a problem, with a rate of 25% in 2017, second only to Venezuela in South America and the highest rate in the G20. On December 28, the Central Bank of Argentina together with the Treasury announced a change of the inflation target. This was seen by the market as a relaxation of the monetary policy. They attempted to reduce it to 15%, but these efforts failed.
  The international trade, which had a surplus in the previous year, gave a deficit. A drought reduced the production of soy, the country's principal export, ranking among the world's worst natural disasters in 2018. 
  The Federal Reserve of the United States increased interest rates from 0.25% to 1.75% and then 2%. This caused investors to return to the United States, leaving emerging markets. The effect, a raise in the price of the United States dollar, was modest in most countries, but it was felt particularly strongly in Argentina, Brazil and Turkey. 
  Those factors led to a monetary crisis. The interest rate increased to 60%, but could not keep the price of the US dollar.
  Macri announced on May 
caption: Macri looking for investments in Davos, January 2016.
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