MNI Looks At Potential Options For The New Finance Minister in Chile

MNI looks at some of the potential options for President-Elect Boric to choose as his new finance minister ahead of his cabinet announcement scheduled for later this week.

Centrist Choices

• Andrea Repetto: highly regarded economist and professor could be the choice if Boric wants to calm the markets.
• Repetto previously ruled out reaching the Treasury: "I will continue helping from the academy"
• The UAI academic stated that her participation in the Advisory Council did not pursue any position. Former Central Bank President Roberto Zahler, whose name is mentioned, has also been reticent. (La Tercera)
  • “Repetto is a recognized academic with clear public policies and could ask for more restraint in Boric’s program” said Carolina Ratto, head of equity research at Credicorp Capital in Santiago.
• Roberto Zahler: President of the Central Bank of Chile December 1991 – June 1996.
• In the period between the two rounds of the election Boric began to look more like the parties in the former Concertación, adding some of their most prominent economists to his team — such as the former head of Chile’s central bank Roberto Zahler and the ultra-liberal Ricardo Ffrench-Davis — to try to ‘reassure the markets’.
  • In addition to seeking the support of former social-liberal presidents Ricardo Lagos and Michelle Bachelet, Boric addressed business leaders at its Enade 2021 convention.
• Guillermo Larrain: Long CV in banking. Continuity choice but may support looser fiscal policy. Big supporter of the private sector. Wrote a book entitled: ‘Chile, fertile province. Towards a Liberating State and a Revolutionary Market’.
• On Boric's economic program: "We have a State that generates very powerful conditions of solidarity and at the same time a private sector that is the protagonist of growth, that is social democracy".

Leftist Choices

• Nicolas Grau: is a left-wing option who is part of the Boric inner circle and advised on economic issues during the campaign. Grau has a focus on the economics of crime and Education, inequality, discrimination, labour economics, and development economics.
• In an interview with the Radio Universo program Universo al Día, Grau indicated that "There is no reason to rush this decision, nor to give importance to the Ministry of Finance for all the other ministries, as if it were the only relevant issue. Of course, it is relevant, but there are also many other important things.”
  • Grau has supported the increase of minimum wage to 400,000 pesos, according to Ex-Ante.cl
  • He has also cited the works of the economist Marianna Mazzucato in praising the role of the state and public funding in scientific innovation.
• Claudia Sanhueza: Leftist option with ambition to ‘…fight poverty and inequality’.
• Another close ally to Boric is Claudia Sanhueza, who was mentioned before the November first round as a potential candidate to run the Finance Ministry. She has a Ph.D. in economics and a masters in philosophy both from Cambridge University.
• Sanhueza caused controversy in October when she said Chileans would only keep what they had saved so far after a Boric administration eliminates the country’s private pension system. Future payments would go to a public social security system.
• Iskia Siches: Very left-wing choice. Served as campaign manager for Gabriel Boric's successful presidential campaign. Doctor and Political figure. Was member of youth communist movement.
• Giorgio Jackson: Left-wing political activist and leader. Very popular within Chile. Organised many of the student and workers movements which would bring Boric to power. Would mark a move away from neoliberal economic policies and towards a more socialist model.
• Camila Vallejo: Very left-wing choice. Vallejo has been deemed the most influential communist figure in 21st-century Chile. Supported communist candidate over Boric in presidential elections.