Chief Presidential Advisor Antonio Aracre resigned this afternoon “in order to deactivate any scheme that aims to disturb the markets,” he said in a Tweet.

“I have handed in my immediate and irrevocable resignation to President Alberto Fernández as Chief Advisor,” he said.

A raíz de los rumores que circularon desde anoche y a los efectos de desactivar cualquier operación tendiente a intranquilizar los mercados le he presentado al Presidente @alferdez mi renuncia indeclinable como Jefe de Asesores de manera inmediata 🧵

— Antonio Aracre (@tonyaracre) April 18, 2023

Aracre said that he made the decision after “rumors that circulated since last night.”Earlier today, journalist Leandro Renoud tweeted that the government allegedly leaked a rumor that Aracre could replace Sergio Massa as economy minister. He said that the leak, together with Central Bank’s alleged delays in updating interest rates, generated “impact and unease in the markets.”

Argentina had a rough economic day today, as the informal blue dollar reached the AR$ 420 mark today — a AR$ 13 increase since yesterday.

Presidential Spokeswoman Gabriela Cerrutti answered him with a tweet saying that “In Casa Rosada, we neither leak nor deny journalistic inventions.”

Hola Leandro,
desconozco cuáles serían las altísimas fuentes porque no es ninguno de los altísimos funcionarios a los que consulté. Pero en la Casa Rosada ni filtramos ni desmentimos inventos periodísticos. Más allá de la novela que algunos medios crean… https://t.co/DHA0l3DeKD

— Gabriela Cerruti (@gabicerru) April 18, 2023

In another tweet following his resignation, Aracre said: “I take this opportunity to thank the President for having honored me with this position, and he knows that he can count on me for whatever he needs.”

Aracre, former CEO of Syngenta for South America, took office on February 1. After working for 36 years in the agribusiness company, he decided to retire from the private sector and “dream about new challenges.”