SANTIAGO: Chile’s leftist President-elect Gabriel Boric, whose victory at the polls last month unsettled the markets, on Friday named the country’s Central Bank governor as his finance...
SANTIAGO: Chile’s leftist President-elect Gabriel Boric, whose victory at the polls last month unsettled the markets, on Friday named the country’s Central Bank governor as his finance minister in a young, diverse and woman-majority cabinet.
Mario Marcel, an independent politician and former member of the Socialist Party, with which he maintains strong ties, had held various roles under center-left governments from 1990 to 2008.
Now 62, he was appointed Reserve Bank governor by Socialist former president Michelle Bachelet for a five-year term that started in late 2016 and continued under her center-right successor Sebastian Pinera.
Marcel was the favorite of the markets, which view his appointment as a sign of moderation in the economic reforms Boric had vowed to implement.
Boric, painted by his detractors as a "communist," succeeded in mobilizing record turnout in the December 19 vote, and garnered nearly 56 percent of votes cast, compared to 44 percent for ultra-conservative Jose Antonio Kast.