AGI – In the first quarter of 2024 Argentina recorded a budget surplus of 275 billion pesos (around 300 thousand dollars), a record never reached since 2008. The Argentine president Javier Milei he announced it on national television with a triumphalist tone, referring to the very year in which his left-wing political rival, Cristina Kirchner, came to power. Therefore it is “an undertaking of historic proportions on a global scale”, an “exploit” insisted Milei, in office since last December. “If the State does not spend more than it collects and does not resort to issuing money, there is no inflation. It is not magic”, explained the controversial president, an ultra-liberal economist who defines himself as an “anarchist-capitalist”.
The president also promised to reduce the budget deficit to zero, a more ambitious goal than the one imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), with which Argentina has a $44 billion loan agreement. To this end, he launched a draconian austerity program – much criticized – which involves the stopping of public works, the dismissal of public employees, the closure of government offices, the cutting of subsidies and the freezing of the budget, at a time when inflation reaches 290% per year and half of population lives in poverty. “Don’t expect public spending to be a solution,” reiterated Javier Milei.
