Argentine president urges LatAm to abandon culture of deficits

Latin America needs to abandon the culture of spending and deficits and adopt policies attracting more investment for development, Argentine President Mauricio Macri said Thursday.

Speaking at the opening of the two-day World Economic Forum for Latin America being held in Medellin, Colombia, Macri said his six-month-old administration had dismantled the "populist" policies of his predecessor and drummed up more investment, urging other regional countries to do the same.

"In the first six months of our administration, we left behind populism" and "we increased investment," Argentine state news agency Telam quoted Macri as saying.

Regional governments need to "leave behind the culture of spending and deficits," in favor of setting clear ground rules to promote investor confidence as a complement to the region's wealth of raw materials, said Macri.

"We have food, natural resources and great biodiversity. Renewable energy is a resource that we should make the most of and encourage to contribute to development," he said.

Macri, who shared the stage with his Colombian counterpart Juan Manuel Santos and the head of the forum's Center for Regional Strategies, Philipp Rosler, expounded on his first months in office and what his government has achieved so far, including boosting exports and investment of some 20 billion U.S. dollars.

Argentina's capital Buenos Aires is set to host next year's World Economic Forum for Latin America in April. Endi