• Argentina is grappling with a weak currency and rising food and energy prices worldwide.
• Martin Guzmán was chief negotiator for Argentina’s debt restructuring with the IMF.
• His resignation raises doubts about Argentina’s economic strategy as a result of internal conflict.

Martin Guzmán, Argentina’s minister of the economy, has resigned as the nation’s economic crisis worsens.

In his role as chief negotiator for Argentina’s debt restructuring with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Mr. Guzmán had been in office since late 2019.

To select his successor, he demanded “a political agreement among the governing coalition.”

Argentina is grappling with a weak currency, 60 percent inflation, and rising food and energy prices worldwide.

After a week of economic unrest during which the Argentine peso fell against the dollar, Mr. Guzmán announced his resignation.

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His resignation raises significant doubts about Argentina’s potential economic strategy.

Guzmán alluded to internal conflicts within the government in a letter to President Alberto Fernández.

However, it is well known that President Fernández and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner disagree on how to address the nation’s economic issues.

In fact, Ms. Fernández was giving the most recent in a string of well-known speeches criticising her own government’s economic policies when Mr. Guzmán announced his resignation.

Ms. Fernández, who served as president from 2007 to 2015, criticises the administration for not doing enough to relieve the financial load on common Argentineans.

She and her supporters believed that Mr. Guzmán’s efforts to cut the budget deficit and tighten monetary policy were excessive.

If Ms. Fernández has her way, the following finance minister will relax fiscal discipline and step up government participation in the economy.

However, several financial commentators have already criticised the IMF for not putting strong enough restrictions in its most recent $44 billion loan arrangement with Argentina, making it a painful pill for the Fund to chew.

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