Economist Santiago Bausili To Become Argentina's Central Bank Chief Under Milei Administration

Economist Santiago Bausili is all set to become the new central bank chief of Argentina after President-elect Javier Milei takes over the office next week.

Milei's spokesperson confirmed Bausili's appointment Tuesday, as per Bloomberg.

Bausili will be taking over the position, as the economic team tries to find solutions for lifting currency controls, fix local-currency debt and introduce the dollar alongside use of peso, the local currency of the country.

He previously served as undersecretary of finance under former President Mauricio Macri from 2016 to 2017. Bausili was also the finance secretary until 2019, apart from working as a partner of Anker, a Buenos Aires-based consultancy firm.

The economist is known to be a close ally of Luis Caputo, who is the incoming economy minister.

Last week, Milei announced that former Central Bank chief Caputo will be appointed the economy minister. Caputo served as the minister of economy from 2017 to 2018 and the president of the Central Bank of Argentina in 2018.

His appointment as the economy minister was not surprising, as he had been part of Milei's team that recently visited Washington to meet Joe Biden's top officials.

During the October presidential debate, Milei slammed the outgoing ruling party's Sergio Massa for the economy and inflation in the country.

"Why don't you tell me about the fiscal disaster you are making with the 'plan platita.' How nice everything he says sounds, it's a pity he can't do it if inflation does not go down. We are on the verge of hyper[inflation] because instead of the fairytale, he does not tell us what he is going to do with it," Milei said at that time.

According to Milei, if Argentina's economy doesn't change, then it will become the "biggest slum in the world," noting that the country "started in the 20th century as the richest country in the world."

Argentina's general election was held on Oct. 22. Since Milei won the elections, the values of stocks and bonds increased along with that of peso. However, Argentina is still going through high inflation, with the country hitting 143% annually.