The Argentine Government formalized this Monday the resignation of Marco Lavagna as director of the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) and the appointment of Pedro Lines to replace him, through Decree 91/2026 published in the Official Gazette. Initially, in the official text signed by President Javier Milei and Minister of Economy Luis Caputo, the resignation presented by economist Marco Lavagna to the position of Director of INDEC is accepted as of February 2, 2026. The official's departure, who was in charge of the body for six years, came amid controversy over the application of the new Consumer Price Index (CPI) formula, which should have been implemented in January and was postponed without a date. Lavagna had taken office during Alberto Fernández's presidency and was ratified at the beginning of the libertarian administration. He also coordinates the development of norms and technical procedures related to the planning, design, implementation, and evaluation of censuses and surveys, as well as social and economic indicators, among other functions. According to his social networks, he is a member of the United Nations Group of Expert Advisors (AEG) of the Intersecretariat Working Group on National Accounts (ISWGNA). From 2016 to 2018, he was in charge of compiling the Balance of Payments, External Debt, and PII estimates for Argentina. From 2011 to 2016, he worked for the Statistical Authority of Qatar, where he was in charge of building the Supply-Utilization tables and the institutional sector accounts of Qatar. He also worked for ten years as an honorary assistant in Econometrics at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). Lines began his career in National Accounts, working on the 1993 base year estimates for Argentina, where he participated in the collection, validation, and analysis of data. Later, in the same office, he was responsible for the final consistency and mathematical treatment of the 1997 Input-Output Matrix. He was in charge of the estimates of private consumption and gross fixed internal investment for Argentina. Upon his resignation, the decree thanks 'the resigning official for the services rendered in the performance of said office'. At the same time, economist Pedro Ignacio Lines was appointed as Director of INDEC as of February 4, 2026, who was serving as Lavagna's technical deputy. Lines is an Economist from the University of Buenos Aires, holds a Master's in Economics from the Center for Macroeconomic Studies, and is currently pursuing a Master's in Data Mining at the Austral University. He works as a technical director at INDEC, coordinating the development of the country's annual statistical program. Among other tasks, he has been responsible for a macroeconomic simulation model that allowed the formulation of a medium-term financial program and the deseasonalization of economic series. During his career, he has acquired experience in the compilation, classification, and production of national accounts statistics, along with a deep knowledge of statistical software.
