SANTIAGO – Chile’s finance minister Mario Marcel, considered a stabilizing and pragmatic figure in President Gabriel Boric’s administration, has resigned, according to a report from CNN Chile on Thursday.
The broadcaster reported that Marcel resigned due to personal reasons and a replacement would be named later on Thursday.
His office did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.
Marcel had served as finance minister since the beginning of Boric’s administration in 2022, surviving a number of cabinet reshuffles.
After a polarizing election campaign during which Boric promised to upend Chile’s neoliberal economic system, markets and investors breathed a sigh of relief when he picked Marcel, who was then serving as the head of the central bank.
The economy quickly became a focal point of Boric’s government as high inflation and tepid economic growth in the wake of the pandemic hampered his ambitious reforms.
Marcel is attributed with stabilizing the economy and helping pass a number of the government’s legislative victories, including a mining royalty and pension reform. REUTERS
