He is considered an orthodox liberal who has a good image in the markets and fluent contacts abroad.[5] However,Prat-Gay has been a political ally to leftist Victoria Donda and some economists like Javier Milei consider him to be a socialist or a socialdemocrat.
In 1994,Prat-Gay joined JP Morgan in New York City and went on to work for the bank in its Buenos Aires and London branches until 2001. He co-founded APL Economía,an economic consulting firm.
Prat-Gay is Chairman of Tilton Capital,an asset management company he co-founded in 2005 with Pedro Lacoste.[7] He is president of Fundación Andares para el desarrollo de las Microfinanzas ("Andares Foundation for the Development of Microfinances").[8] His clients at Tilton Capital included the late María Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat,former chairperson of Argentina's largest concrete manufacturer,Loma Negra. Prat-Gay's work for Mrs. Fortabat came under scrutiny after revelations that Tilton Capital facilitated tax evasion and capital flight for Fortabat and other clients,including the entirety of Mrs. Fortabat's billion-dollar payout for her sale of Loma Negra in 2005.[7] The vice president of JP Morgan Argentina at the time,Hernán Arbizu,declared that Prat-Gay managed much of this wealth in an offshorehedge fund of his creation with put options against the Argentine peso.[9] He was appointed executor of the Lacroze de Fortabat estate following Mrs. Fortabat's death in 2012.[7]
Politics
In December 2002,Prat-Gay was named president of the Central Bank of Argentina,at only 37 years of age,and served until September 24,2004.[10] He won the 2004 Euromoney Central Bank Governor of the Year award for his work for having reduced the inflation from 40% to 5% while maintaining an economic growth of 8%.[11] He completed his term and rejected President Néstor Kirchner's offer to renew his position for another six-year term,due to disagreements with the president on the independence of the Central Bank,anti-inflationary policies,and on negotiations on defaulted bonds.[12]
Prat-Gay led the Civic Coalition's party list for the city of Buenos Aires in the 2009 congressional elections,and was handily elected.[13] As a Congressman,he worked on projects such as increasing banking security,preventing money laundering and drug trafficking,and an extensive deregulation of the Argentine financial system. He was a main voice of the opposition in Congress on economic issues. He was named head of the Civic Coalition caucus in the Lower House following Elisa Carrió's poor showing in the 2011 presidential election.
One of the first changes to economic policy from the Macri administration,just seven days after he had taken office,was to remove the currency controls that had been in place for four consecutive years. The move signified a 30% devaluation of the peso,and was met with both criticism and praise.[16][17][18][19][20]
Political intervention in the INDEC figures ended,and the IMF declared in November 2016 that Argentine statistics were again in accordance with international standards.[34]
Among the most notorious vulnerabilities of the administration was an extremely high inflation rate:it was 40% in 2016 (while the Central Bank expected an inflation rate of 17% for 2017,10% for 2018 and 5% for 2019).[35]
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