Miguel Gustavo Peirano

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Miguel Peirano

Miguel Gustavo Peirano is an Argentine economist, and former Minister of Economy and Production of Argentina. He was appointed by President Néstor Kirchner on July 16, 2007, in place of Felisa Miceli.^[1] Until then, he had been Secretary of Industry, Commerce and Small and Medium Enterprises.

As an economist, Peirano has worked both in the public and the private sector. Between 1990 and 1992 he worked in the multinational Techint group. He was an adviser for the General Direction of Industry of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires, adviser for the Board of the Bank of the Province of Buenos Aires, and president of the Economics department of the Buenos Aires City Industrial Union. He also occupied various posts in the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA) from 1993 to 2004. Between 2003 and 2004 he was an adviser for the national Subsecretariat of the Small and Medium Enterprise and Regional Development, where he worked specially on the resolution of the economic asymmetries between Argentina and Brazil in the context of Mercosur. Before taking the post of Minister of Economy, he was the senior vice president of the Bank of Investment and Foreign Trade (BICE).^[2]

Politically, Peirano is considered personally linked to former President Kirchner, and has kept amicable relations with both Chief of Cabinet Alberto Fernández and Minister of Federal Planning, Public Investment and Services Julio De Vido, as well as with Martín Redrado, head of the Central Bank of Argentina.^[3] Professionally, he was linked to ARI's economist Rubén Lo Vuolo, and he is known to be in respectful terms with opposition leader Elisa Carrió.

The change from Miceli to Peirano was generally considered not significant for the general Argentine economic programme. Peirano's taking of office was saluted especially by the industrial sector. The former minister expressed strong support for several of the key ideas of the government's economic plan, including the encouragement of industrial exports and import substitution through a high exchange rate sustained by monetary interventionism.^[3]

On December 10, 2007, with the inauguration of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's cabinet, Martín Lousteau succeeded Peirano as Minister of Economy of Argentina.^[4]

[edit] Quotations

"The State as an agent for the promotion of growth is fundamental. The 'automatic pilot' was a bie lie of neoliberalism. Under the supposed automatic pilot there were hidden decisions by omission to favor privileged sectors."
"It has to be said in full: neoliberals are evil."
"Argentina is a country which must be strongly industrial."
"There might be inviable enterprises, but in the current stage of development of Argentina all [economic] sectors are viable."
"The strategy of industrial development cannot be sustained by low wages."
"Choosing a sustainable exchange rate to increase exports and substitute imports is a basic macro rule for industrial development."
"Those who accuse us of 'closing' the economy should consider that, without a solid internal market, it is impossible to increase exports or productivity. The other alternative is to turn into a factory or doom millions of Argentinians to a life without future."
"Mercosur must recover its original spirit. Let us remember it was created to support intra-industrial trade between the member countries and to employ that expanded market as a platform to gain competitiveness in other markets and weight in international negotiations."

^[3]