But a recording of him released on Sunday in which he none-too-subtly suggested businessmen should make contributions to a “solidarity fund” for people affected by serious floods in La Plata earlier this year did little to diminish Moreno’s negative image.  According to the presenter of the programme on which the recordings were aired, Argentina’s chief muckraking journalist Jorge Lanata, the flood victims in La Plata, the capital of the province of Buenos Aires, have not seen a penny from this fund.

It comes at a time when Moreno is already on the back foot, after a judge decided to prosecute him last week for “abuse of authority” by “illegally” and “arbitrarily” sanctioning private sector economists for publishing inflation figures that contrast drastically with numbers released by the long discredited state-run INDEC statistics office.

Even government officials have admitted lately that the INDEC’s figures are not a close reflection of reality, and this weekend is the deadline given by the IMF for Argentina to improve the accuracy of its data.

Moreno’s plight also comes at a particularly inconvenient time for his boss, President Cristina Fernández. She too is on the back foot after her party’s candidates performed poorly in primaries last month ahead of important mid-term legislative elections on October 27th.

The last thing she needs to deal with is another corruption scandal, just as Argentina’s imperious leader is trying to endear herself to the people in a fireside chat recorded a few weeks ago that is being broadcast in weekly half-hour installments on state television – the first interview she has given in four years.

Some are even speculating that this could mark the end of Moreno’s reign as commerce secretary. One well-connected local journalist reported senior government figures as saying that he has become too compromising a figure for Fernández and must go. Apparently, the announcement of Moreno’s prosecution was even cause for celebration in the central bank.