Argentine president inherits $6.8 mn

Buenos Aires, Aug 8 (IANS/EFE) Argentine President Cristina Fernandez inherited 31.6 million pesos ($6.8 million) from her late husband and predecessor, Nestor Kirchner, the media reported Tuesday, citing financial disclosure statements.

The president's net worth in 2011 reached a total of 39.6 million pesos ($8.6 million), according to a declaration presented to the Anticorruption Office.

Fernandez's net worth dropped from the $15.3 million she reported after Kirchner's October 2010 death from a heart attack, because 50 percent of Kirchner's assets were inherited by the couple's two children, Maximo and Florencia, according to documents released by the dailies Clarin and La Nacion.

Her financial disclosure statements show a bank deposit of $3 million that the head of state exchanged for pesos, as she announced several weeks ago, in line with government restrictions on purchasing dollars with the aim of "de-dollarizing" the Argentine economy.

Fernandez has an annual income of some $72,132 as president and also has income from rental properties inherited from her husband, and from two hotels that she owns in the southern town of Calafate, where she customarily spends her weekends.

The president also has other lands at Calafate in the province of Santa Cruz, where Kirchner was governor for 12 years before his rise to the presidency.

--IANS/EFE

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