- Around three and a half months after taking office, Argentina’s ultra-liberal President Javier Milei announced the first quarterly budget surplus in over 15 years.
- In March alone, the surplus was around 276 billion pesos (around CHF 289 million), Milei said in a televised speech on Monday.
- “This is the first quarter with a budget surplus since 2008,” said Milei.
Argentina has been in a severe economic crisis for years. Milei described the result as a “milestone that we should all be proud of, especially given the catastrophic legacy we have had to overcome.”
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The government is right and its plan is working, Milei said during his televised speech.
REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian
The government in Buenos Aires recently cut thousands of public sector jobs, halved the number of ministries, cut subsidies and dismantled social programs. Inflation has risen to 280 percent in recent months.
Milei calls for perseverance
Critics complain that Milei’s tough austerity measures are pushing many people into poverty. Food prices have risen by more than half in a country with a poverty rate of nearly 60 percent. And Milei is accused of putting the country’s future at risk with cuts in the education sector, for example. Students, lecturers and professors have therefore called for a nationwide protest on Tuesday.
“I want to say to all Argentines that I understand that the situation we are in is tough, but also that we are already more than half the way there,” said Milei. “This is the final stage of a heroic effort that we Argentines are making, and for the first time in a long time this effort will be worth it.”