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BUENOS AIRES—Argentine President Mauricio Macri on Tuesday declared an energy emergency, secured a $500 million shale-oil investment and unleashed a backlash by bypassing the Senate to temporarily appoint two Supreme Court justices by decree.

The day's activities reflected the dizzying pace Mr. Macri has taken since he took office on Thursday to try to jump-start a sickly economy and overturn a decade of his predecessor's policies.

In five days, Mr. Macri has begun overhauling Argentina's discredited statistics agency, eliminated most farm export taxes, cut personal income taxes, replaced the central bank president, and appointed two Supreme Court justices.

"Unfortunately, after a decade in which we've become less competitive, we are in a situation of extreme, extreme vulnerability," Mr. Macri said on Monday in a speech to manufacturers. "That means we're up against the clock. We have no time to waste."

This weekend, he met Argentina's 23 governors and the mayor of this capital city to discuss reviving the economy. The meeting was a jolt to Argentine politicians who had grown unaccustomed to dialogue during 12 years of highly centralized rule by former President Cristina Kirchner and her late husband, Né stor.

"I have been a governor for eight years and I have never been in a meeting like that. Never," said Salta Province Governor Juan Manuel Urtubey, a member of Mrs. Kirchner's opposition Peronist party.

Some governors here have long said Mrs. Kirchner called on them to share her ideas, but not to listen to theirs.

The Macri administration has been negotiating with foreign banks to obtain billions in fresh financing, a break from the Kirchner administration, which boasted it had stopped borrowing money abroad. The government also announced it would cut subsidies that make utility bills here among the cheapest in the world.Axel Kicillof, Mrs. Kirchner's former economy minister, warned Monday that raising utility rates could hurt the poor.

Mr. Macri's different tack is making an impression on many Argentines. "Cristina appeared on television all the time and spoke constantly. It was overwhelming," said Leandro Rotberg, 35, an information technology specialist. "Macri isn't as verbose but he's making his points. We need to give him time to fix the problems he's inherited."

Argentina currently suffers from roughly 25% annual inflation, the biggest fiscal deficit in three decades, a shortage of U.S. dollars needed to pay for imports, and poverty that nears 29%. Argentine exporters also say an overvalued currency makes local goods uncompetitive abroad.

Mr. Macri, who beat Mrs. Kirchner's candidate in a tightly contested runoff election in November, had just over two weeks to name a cabinet and set up his administration before taking office.Since his inauguration on Thursday, he has named nearly 20 cabinet ministers and traveled to Brazil and Chile to meet Presidents Dilma Rousseff and Michelle Bachelet and discuss trade.

Mr. Macri has already held full cabinet meetings, a departure from Mrs. Kirchner, who didn't summon gatherings of all her cabinet members.

The new president said he would eliminate currency controls this week, ending a four-year policy that has choked economic growth.

While economists welcome the move, it is widely expected to come with a currency devaluation that could take the exchange rate to around 15 pesos to the dollar from 9.8 currently. That could fuel inflation, which rose faster in the first week of December than it has since early 2014.

"Acting quickly and decisively is very positive for President Macri, and frankly very positive for the country," said Susan Segal, head of the New York-based think tank Council of the Americas. "The faster he implements some of these measures, the faster we'll see some of the benefits."

Not everyone agrees. "Macri is moving too quickly," said Carlos Ponti, 44, an accountant in Buenos Aires. "He cut export taxes when the country has a deficit. First he needs to balance the books, then cut taxes."

Alfonso Prat-Gay, Mr. Macri's newly appointed finance minister, has played down inflation risks, saying retailers have already marked up prices. But other administration officials and economists say there are risks.

Letting the currency depreciate too quickly could destabilize the economy in the short-term, says Goldman Sachs economist Alberto Ramos, while noting that delaying overhauls could raise opposition to them in Congress, making it harder for Mr. Macri to get things done later in the year.

"You want to be careful, but you don't want to hesitate too much along that strategy because otherwise people start to question if the adjustment was really necessary," Mr. Ramos said.

Mr. Macri's energy minister, Juan José Aranguren, on Tuesday said the country's utilities sector was on the edge of collapse, prompting the government to declare a state of energy emergency through 2017 that lets the government push through conservation policies to fend off the power blackouts that have plagued Buenos Aires and surrounding areas for years.

Mr. Macri's move on Tuesday to bypass the Senate and temporarily appoint two Supreme Court justices by decree elicited a strong reaction, but the controversy seemed to settle somewhat after the chief justice said he would welcome the new judges to the court.

"This is President Macri's first and grave mistake," Congresswoman Margarita Stolbizer said in a post on Twitter. "Appointing justices to the Supreme Court by decree is a terrible institutional setback."

Meanwhile, Mr. Macri has said his top focus will be the economy.

Early Tuesday, after meeting with chief executives from the state-run oil company, YPF, and the local unit of Dow Chemical Co., he said the companies would invest $500 million in 2016 to explore for shale gas.

It was the first of what he said he hoped would be many private sector announcements to boost investment in Argentina.

"We should be optimistic about the future," Mr. Macri said, "even though we have a complicated present."

Ryan Dube

Write to Taos Turner at taos.turner@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 15, 2015 20:35 ET (01:35 GMT)

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