Narayan AmmachchiArgentine President Mauricio Macri’s chances of winning another term in office are improving, with recent polls showing Macri gaining a slight lead against his main rival in the presidential race.
In a poll published by local firm Management & Fit, Macri was found 2 percentage points ahead of Alberto Fernandez, the candidate from the Peronist Party. Another poll firm Poliarquía also predicted a victory for the president in the election scheduled for October this year.
Former president Cristina Fernandez, whose populist policies allegedly plunged Argentina into an economic mess, is the running mate of Alberto Fernandez.
International investors are closely watching Macri’s electoral prospects, because he is a pro-business politician and doing everything he can to lift the economy out of recession.
Moreover, Macri helped Argentina shake off its image as a pariah in the global financial market, and successfully obtained a US$56 billion lifeline from the International Monitory Fund (IMF).
These days, Argentina’s economy is improving, albeit slowly, with peso, the country’s currency, gaining 7.5% in value against the US dollar over the past six months.
Inflation is also going down, according to reports from local publications. Weaker peso has helped some of the country’s exporters, including IT services provider Globant, according to a report from Reuters.
Macri played a key role in Mercosur, a South American trade block, reaching a free trade agreement with the European Union last month.
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