Hernán Lacunza

He received a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Buenos Aires in 1994. Between 1997 and 1998 he completed a postgraduate degree in Economics at the Torcuato Di Tella University.

In the private function, Lacunza was economic analyst at Scotiabank Quilmes (2004-2007) and a consultant at the Capital Foundation (2007-2002).

From 2002 to 2005 Lacunza was director of the Center for International Economics at the Secretary of Commerce and International Economic Relations within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Argentina.

Lacunza was appointed as General Manager at Central Bank of Argentina between 2008 and early 2010, after being designated as Chief Economist between 2005 and 2008

He returned to the private sector by founding his consulting firm Empiria Consultores Economía y Finanza.

In December 2013, he assumed the position of General Manager of the Bank of the City of Buenos Aires during the government of Mauricio Macri in the city.

On December 10, 2015, Lacunza assumed as Minister of Economy of the Province of Buenos Aires (the largest province of Argentina that houses 17 million of ihabitants, almost 40% of argentine population) under the government of María Eugenia Vidal. At the time of assuming, the province was broken due to the strong fiscal deficit, high taxes and no public works. During his period al Minister the Province recovered by law the so called Fondo del Conurbano, in compensation of an historical discrimination in the federal tax coparticipation regime (the share of Buenos Aires grew from 18% to 22% of federal tax revenues), the tax pressure and the most distortive taxes to production activity (ingresos brutos) were reduced, and the share of public works on provincial budget grew from 3,7% to more than 5% on average At the same time, in spite of a sharp fall in activity level because of macroeconomic problems since 2018, the financial fiscal deficit was reduced from 1,1% to 0,6% of GDP, as well as the Province recovered the primary surplus since 2017 until now

On August 17, 2019, in a context of high economic and political uncertainty after the government had been defeated at primary elections, Lacunza assumed the position of Minister of Treasury of Argentina. In order to recover some financial stability, he immediately announced an extension of short-term debt maturities (Letes and Lebacs), a bill sent to Congress to promote voluntary debt swap under local law, the beginning of a low debt swap process. foreign law and a restatement of maturities with the International Monetary Fund. In all cases they are extensions of term, without removing capital or interest.

Complementary, in early September, exchange controls were implemented: a purchase limit of 10 thousand dollars per month per person (lowered to 2 hundred dollars after general elections), the requirement that transnational companies request authorization from the Central Bank to issue dividends to their parent companies abroad and a maximum term for exporters to liquidate the currencies generated in their operations.

Under this framework, despite being defeated in general elections of october 2019, the outgoing government was able to deliver the power in december 10th having poured ghosts of hyperinflation, clamps of withdrawal on bank deposits, the default of the public debt or additional rounds of currency devaluation

With these measures, the government was able to keep the track of fiscal adjustment (primary deficit of 0,4% of GDP in 2019), to rebuild some reserves stocks of the Central Bank of Argentina to stabilize the exchange rate and to deliver resources to the new government to face the challenges of debt restructuration process

• Joint World Bank-IMF Development Committee, Member (2019)[4]
• Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2019)[5]
• Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2019)[6]
• International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2019)[7]
• World Bank, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2019)[8]
• Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), World Bank Group, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2019)[9]