The new ministry was created in order to "adapt the organization of the National Public Administration in accordance with the process of reducing public spending and increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the organizations included."

The Government of Argentine President Javier Milei appointed this Friday the economist Federico Sturzenegger as Minister of Deregulation and Transformation of the State.

Sturzenegger, former head of the central bank (BCRA), will assume the new portfolio in the afternoon, at a time when financial markets are experiencing turbulence due to doubts about the progress of the economy.

The new ministry was created in order to "adapt the organization of the National Public Administration in accordance with the process of reducing public spending and increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the organizations included," according to the decree published this day in the State official newsletter.

The designation had already been announced by the Government at the end of May, when the chief of staff, Guillermo Francos, stated that Sturzenegger would join the national cabinet "as a minister in an area that will have to do with the country's economic deregulation.

On May 28, the name of the ministry that Sturzenegger would assume was still unclear, but Milei had already anticipated in an interview in mid-June that “Sturzenegger is going to be involved in the deregulation of the State. "He's going to live with Caputo."

On that occasion, he also clarified that he was going to have the rank of minister because “he is one of the most brilliant economists.”

At 58 years old, Federico Sturzenegger was president of the Central Bank between 2015 and 2018 during the government of Mauricio Macri. He also held the Secretary of Economic Policy during the administration of Fernando de la Rúa and resigned on November 20, 2001, shortly before one of the worst economic and social crises in the country's history.

Sturzenegger has been linked to the Milei government as a close advisor, appearing in cabinet photos, and is considered the mastermind behind decrees issued in December 2023 to deregulate the economy.

The local press describes the appointment as "a ministry made to measure, that of Deregulation and Transformation of the State. It will be in charge of continuing with the work of deregulation of the State, in line with its participation in the development of the mega DNU 70 and the Law Original bases", quotes Clarín.

Sturzenegger made available to the Government extensive work that he had done for the former presidential candidate of Together for Change and today Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich. There, he proposed the elimination of hundreds of regulations in different sectors of the economy, from home rentals to prepaid medicine.

"It is the responsibility of the Ministry of Deregulation and Transformation of the State to assist the President of the Nation and the Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers, in accordance with their powers, in everything related to the courses of action for the implementation of the deregulation, reform and modernization of the State. State with a view to resizing and reducing public spending and increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the organizations that make up the National Public Administration, the transformation of management, the simplification of the State, the design and execution of policies related to public employment," indicates another part of the document, which also lists the 27 functions that the new area will have.