Argentina Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay to step down - media

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay will step down, local media reported on Monday, marking the first major departure in President Mauricio Macri's Cabinet since he took office a year ago.

A Finance Ministry spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment. Cabinet chief Marcos Pena was expected to have a news conference in the early afternoon.

Prat-Gay was instrumental in lifting Argentina's currency controls and negotiating a deal with holdout creditors, two of the center-right Macri administration's main achievements after taking office last December, ending more than a decade of populist rule.

Rumors about Prat-Gay's future had swirled in recent weeks after an income tax proposal crucial to the government's deficit reduction targets failed in Congress, forcing the government to renegotiate a new deal with the opposition.

 

(Reporting by Luc Cohen; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Bill Trott)