Argentine president-elect Javier Milei on Monday said that it could take between 18 and 24 months to bring rampant inflation under control, as he outlined his plans to reform the economy.
Milei won a resounding victory in Sunday’s presidential election, trouncing Argentine Minister of Economy Sergio Massa by 12 points with a pledge to halt decades of unbridled state spending and “end the decline of Argentina.”
The 53-year-old outsider, who has drawn comparisons with former US president Donald Trump and former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro for his abrasive style and controversial remarks, vowed to “very quickly put public accounts in order.”
Photo: Reuters
In a series of morning radio interviews to lay out his vision, he said he had a “clear plan” to tackle annual inflation that has hit 140 percent and a poverty rate of 40 percent.
During the campaign, Milei vowed to ditch the ailing peso for the US dollar and get rid of the central bank, which he accuses of fueling inflation by printing money to finance government overspending.
“The empirical evidence for the Argentine case says that if you cut monetary emission today, it takes between 18 and 24 months to destroy” inflation, he said.
Milei is anti-abortion, suggesting a referendum to repeal access to the procedure, and does not believe humans are responsible for climate change. However, he has toned down his controversial rhetoric, and has focused on his plans to reform the state.
“Everything that can be in the hands of the private sector is going to be in the hands of the private sector,” including the state oil company YPF and state media, he said.
Milei added that he would push for the elimination of strict currency exchange controls, with analysts saying the official rate of the peso to the US dollar is an expensive fiction.
However, Milei said he would first seek to resolve the debt issued by the central bank.
“If the problem of the central bank is not resolved, the shadow of hyperinflation will follow us at all times,” he said.
Asked about his dollarization platform, Milei said the priority was “to close the central bank, then the currency will be the one that Argentines freely choose.”
Milei is to take office on Dec. 10, inheriting a country whose coffers are in the red, with US$44 billion in debt with the IMF looming over his incoming government.
IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva congratulated Milei and said that she looked forward to working with him “to develop and implement a strong plan to safeguard macroeconomic stability and strengthen inclusive growth for all Argentinians.”
Monday was a public holiday, meaning the impact of Milei’s win on the volatile peso has been delayed.
Reactions poured in for the new leader of Latin America’s third-largest economy, including congratulations from Brazil and China — which he had previously vowed to cut ties with, saying: “We don’t make deals with communists.”
Milei toned down much of his more controversial rhetoric after winning the backing of the center-right opposition, and it remains to be seen which of his policies would materialize.
In Beijing, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning (毛寧) told a regular news briefing yesterday that it would be a “serious mistake” for Argentina to cut ties with countries such as China and Brazil.
Diana Mondino, an economist tipped to become foreign minister in the Milei administration, said that Argentina would not join the BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency cited her as saying.
Mondino told RIA Novosti that Argentina would “stop interacting” with the governments of China and Brazil, when asked whether Argentina would encourage exports and imports with those countries.
Asked by reporters about Mondino’s remarks, Mao said: “The two sides have strong economic complementarity and huge potential for cooperation.”
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS