Argentina's Macri sworn in as president

Mauricio Macri has taken office as Argentina's first non-Peronist president in 16 years, ending more than a decade of leftist populism with a promise to revive the South American country's ailing economy.

The 56-year-old began his four-year term in a ceremony on Thursday snubbed by his predecessor, Cristina Fernandez, following a spat over where the handover of power should take place.

Macri, his wife and daughter were escorted by horseback-mounted guards through streets packed with cheering supporters waving the national flag and yellow balloons, the colour of the leader's `Let's Change' alliance.

In his first speech as president, the former centre-right mayor of Buenos Aires vowed to grow the economy, lift all Argentines out of poverty and tackle endemic graft.

"Multiplying job opportunities is the only way to achieve prosperity where, today, there is an unacceptable level of poverty," Macri told politicians moments after taking his oath in the National Assembly.

His victory delivered a hammer-blow to the Peronist movement that has dominated Argentine politics for much of the past 70 years and which will be ready to pounce on him if his planned reforms unleash a new crisis.

Reading from a script, Macri did not provide any fresh details on how he would unwind capital controls and import restrictions, tame double-digit inflation or narrow Argentina's yawning fiscal deficit.

They are tasks that will be complicated by a central bank running low on US dollars and a festering debt row with creditors that isolated Argentina from global debt markets and plunged it back into default last year.