President Javier Milei promised Tuesday that inflation will soon be "little more than a bad memory" in the future for Argentines as he marked his first year in office.
In a ‘Cadena Nacional’ national broadcast at 9pm local time, Milei also vowed to pursue a free-trade deal with the United States and remove the so-called ‘cepo,’ Argentina’s byzantine system of capital and currency controls, in the next 12 months.
"Happy times are coming in Argentina," Milei predicted in his anniversary speech, in which he celebrated progress on monthly inflation, which has dropped under his cost-cutting agenda even as poverty has risen.
"The recession is over and the country has begun to grow,” claimed the 54-year-old head of state, promising “sustained growth” in 2025.
"We have passed the litmus test … the sacrifice they have made will not be in vain," said Milei, who was flanked by his Cabinet ministers for the national address.
In a bid to capitalise on his good relationship with US president-elect Donald Trump, Milei said his government will seek a free-trade agreement with the United States in the next 12 months.
"Our first objective will be to push for a free-trade agreement with the United States next year," he declared.
The La Libertad Avanza leader also said he would use the rotating presidency, which Argentina currently holds, of the Mercosur trade bloc to boost the autonomy of its members to make deals.
Mercosur’s current rules would complicate efforts to seek a deal independently with the United States, as Argentina needs the consent of the bloc’s other members.
Milei, a self-proclaimed "anarcho-capitalist," also promised a “structural” tax reform that would reduce national taxation by 90 percent.
In an announcement that will boost the spirit of investors, he vowed to eliminate Argentina's strict currency controls “next year and forever” so that people can "use the currency they want in their daily transactions."
International investors are keenly waiting for Milei to dismantle the scaffolding of controls he inherited a year ago that have discouraged foreign funds from putting money in the country.
We are “closer every day to the definitive end of the exchange rate ‘cepo’," he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Milei promised to cut taxes on exports from 2025 during a meeting with leaders of the Sociedad Rural Argentina, the organisation representing major landowners in one of the world's largest food-producing nations.
Since taking office in December, Milei's government has applied a drastic austerity programme with the aim of eliminating Argentina’s budget deficit and taming chronic inflation.
It has slashed subsidies for transport, fuel and energy and cut more than 30,000 public sector jobs, reducing the number of government ministries and shuttering several state agencies.
On Tuesday, Milei vowed that the “deep chainsaw is coming,” stating that a “relentless audit” of the state would continue, delivering “the deepest reduction in public spending in Argentina's history.”
"We will continue to eliminate agencies, secretariats, sub-secretariats, public companies and all state bodies that should not exist,” he declared.
Under the Milei administration, monthly inflation dropped to a three-year low of less than three percent in October, falling from the 25.5 percent registered last December when the government devalued the peso 52 percent.
"We are getting closer every day to inflation being little more than a bad memory," promised Milei.
According to the most recent official data, poverty affected 53 percent of the population in the first half of 2024 – up 11.2 percentage points from when Milei took office.
In typical style, Milei did not refrain from criticising his opponents. Slamming “the caste” for Argentina’s recent economic and political turmoil, he vowed his government would stay the course and fix the mess his “degenerate” rivals had left behind.
– TIMES/AFP
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