Argentina's Controversial Commerce Secretary Guillermo Moreno Resigns

       By Taos Turner 

    BUENOS AIRES--One of Argentina's most controversial government officials, Domestic Commerce Secretary Guillermo Moreno, resigned on Tuesday, marking the end of an era characterized by his efforts to control prices, limit imports, and personally intimidate businessmen into complying with unwritten government policies.

    Mr. Moreno will leave office in two weeks to become an economic attache at Argentina's embassy in Rome, Alfredo Scoccimarro, a spokesman for President Cristina Kirchner, said in televised statement late Tuesday.

    News of his departure came a day after Mrs. Kirchner named a new cabinet chief, economy minister and central bank president in her biggest cabinet shakeup in years. Mrs. Kirchner made the changes on her first day back at work after having surgery to remove a blood clot near her brain almost six weeks ago.

    Mr. Moreno almost single-handedly enforced the government's price control polices in an ultimately failed bid to contain rising inflation. His attempts to protect local industry as well as Argentina's declining foreign currency reserves by limiting imports prompted several major trading partners, including the U.S., to sue Argentina at the World Trade Organization.

    Over the years, he cajoled, coerced or bullied countless executives into freezing prices or agreeing to stop importing or exporting certain goods, according to businessmen who have met with the commerce secretary.

    Mr. Moreno's office has consistently declined to comment on such allegations. Nestor Kirchner, Argentina's late president who died in 2010, once denied claims about Mr. Moreno's allegedly aggressive behavior, saying he was "kinder than Lassie," the famous TV-show dog.

    Still, anecdotes abound about Mr. Moreno's confrontational and at time humorous interactions with businessmen. Mr. Moreno frequently yelled at and insulted businessmen. He has often told off-color jokes and given executives long-winded lectures detailing his economic theories, according to businessmen who have met with the secretary.

    Executives who have spoken off the record say Mr. Moreno's understanding of economics was rudimentary at best and profoundly ignorant at worst. He could force executives to temporarily hold prices steady on certain products, but that he was unable to prevent them from hiking prices on others. Skirting price controls was sometimes just a matter of changing the packaging or volume of a certain item. In other cases, companies froze prices on some goods, but curtailed production.

    In the end, Mr. Moreno's personalized approach to controlling prices didn't prevent inflation from running in the double digits in recent years. Despite repeated government claims to the contrary, many economists say annual inflation likely totals about 25%. Official government data puts inflation at closer to 11%.

    In September, Mr. Moreno was indicted for allegedly abusing his power by fining economist Jorge Todesca for publishing his own inflation estimates. A court threw out the fine, but Mr. Todesca is still fighting criminal charges filed against him by Mr. Moreno.

    In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Todesca said government persecution had cost him time, legal fees and had also scared away some clients from hiring his consulting firm, Finosport SA.

    Mr. Moreno has also fined other economists. His determination to silence economists by threatening them with jail time led some opposition members of Congress to publish private sector inflation estimates anonymously in hopes of protecting them from further persecution.

    Mr. Moreno was also responsible for making broad changes at Argentina's national statistics agency, Indec. Until 2007, when Mr. Moreno virtually took over the agency, Indec was widely respected throughout Latin America. Today, virtually no economist, businessman, academic or union leader trusts the agency's data.

    The International Monetary Fund has even warned Argentina to improve the quality of its data or face sanctions, including potential expulsion, from the fund.

    It's unclear how Mr. Moreno's departure might change government policies regarding price controls, trade and other matters.

    Mr. Moreno had the president's support and didn't make decisions on his own, Mr. Todesca said.

    Write to Taos Turner at