President Mauricio Macri of Argentina is shaking up his cabinet after the resignation of Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay, the government announced Monday, according to dpa. Prat-Gay resigned due to differences with the conservative president, according to cabinet chief Marcos Pena. Prat-Gay's portfolio is to be split between a Finance Ministry under Luis Caputo, who had finance secretary, and a Budget Ministry headed by Nicolas Dujovne. The realignment of the finance portfolio is Macri's first cabinet change after a year in office. Prat-Gay had a key role in the deal negotiated by Macri's government with bondholders from the government's 2001 default. The settlement has allowed Argentina to return to international debt markets. Macri's predecessor, left-wing populist Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, had refused for years to negotiate with creditors who had refused previous government attempts to pay a small fraction on the face value of the defaulted bonds. Prat-Gay, seen as an advocate for gradual liberalization following years of statist economic policies, came under pressure as Argentina's economy continued to struggle with inflation and a lack of growth.
