French economist Thomas Piketty met with Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner on Saturday, according to the Buenos Aires Herald.
The famed economist also met with Argentine economy minister Axel Kicillof to discuss debt restructuring and "the possibility of creating a tax union in Latin America." Piketty is soon expected to launch a Spanish edition of his book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, which revived debate on the extent of global wealth inequality.
According to the Herald, Piketty said he viewed Argentina as “full of tension over the question of distribution.”
Argentina’s economy contracted more than forecast in the third quarter, after gross domestic product shrank 0.8 percent year-over-year, according to Bloomberg.
The economist also recently visited Chile, where he observed that the richest one percent controls 35 percent of the national production, a level “even above that of the United States,” according to the Herald.
Piketty recently refused to accept France's highest honor, the Legion d'honneur, saying government shouldn't decide who is honorable.
"They would do better to concentrate on reviving [economic] growth in France and Europe," Piketty said.
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