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Argentine President-elect Javier Milei

REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian

Is Milei moderating? Argentina’s president-elect takes power

After running a scorching campaign that promised to turn Argentina into a Utopia of free-market capitalism by any means necessary, President-elect Javier Milei is cooling things down a bit ahead of his inauguration on Sunday.

Milei won last month’s election in a landslide by blasting the economic policies of the outgoing Peronist government, promising to slash government spending, cut taxes, eliminate most ministries, close the central bank, and dollarize Argentina’s economy.

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Candidate Javier Milei greets his supporters as he arrives at the school where he votes, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Nov. 19, 2023.

REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian

Milei’s victory plunges Argentina into uncharted waters

Far-right libertarian Javier Milei is set to become president of Argentina after defeating Economy Minister Sergio Massa in Sunday’s runoff election. With over 90% of the ballots counted, Milei leads the vote count 56% to 44%, and Massa has conceded defeat.

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Graph of Argentina's inflation since 2018

Paige Fusco

The Graphic Truth: Argentina's Inflation Problem

Argentina is facing some of the world’s highest inflation, with rates this year climbing back into the triple digits for the first time in three decades in February. Some economists forecast that South America’s second-largest economy could break the 200% inflation mark before the year is out, exacerbating the ongoing economic crisis that has left four out of 10 people in poverty as prices rise faster than wages.

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Argentine congressman and presidential pre-candidate, Javier Milei

Reuters

Argentina’s economy teeters on verge of collapse

Argentina’s economy is on thin ice, especially since the radical libertarian candidate Javier Milei unexpectedly emerged as the front-runner in the presidential primary this week.

Milei is promising to dollarize the economy and abolish the central bank if elected this autumn. His primary success sent shockwaves through the markets, forcing Economic Minister Sergio Massa – who is also running for the presidency – to devalue the peso’s exchange rate, adding to already soaring inflation, and forcing him to raise interest rates from 97% to 118%.

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Argentine presidential candidate Javier Milei gives a speech in Buenos Aires on Aug. 7, 2023.

REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian

Populism rules the day in Argentina

Far-right eccentric economist Javier Milei surprised everyone in Argentina’s primary election on Sunday. Faced with 116% annual inflation, a 43% poverty rate, a plunging peso, and rising crime, voters responded at the polls by awarding Milei the most votes.

With more than 90% of the ballots counted, Milei has 30% while the conservative opposition bloc has just 28%, and the ruling Peronist coalition has 27%.

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Migrants use their phones to access the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in a shelter near the US-Mexico border in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico February 24, 2023.

REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

Hard Numbers: Glitchy US border app, Japanese no-show canned, Paris stinks, Argentina’s inflation hits triple digits

2.5: A new US government app meant to speed the processing of asylum-seekers and other migrants arriving from Mexico has a rating of just 2.5 stars on Google play. Small wonder, given that the app is reportedly glitchy, difficult to use, and creates opportunities for scammers to prey on migrants and their families.

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A shopper looks at produce in a market in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Reuters

As inflation nears 100% in Argentina, the political class struggles to respond

Though much of the world is suffering from uncomfortably high inflation as economies adjust to the disruptions brought by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, some countries are grappling with double- or triple-digit price increases. In Argentina, for example, a rapid acceleration of price gains in recent months has economists predicting inflation will reach 100% this year.

We asked Eurasia Group expert Luciano Sigalov to explain the runaway price increases in the South American country and how political leaders are responding to them (or not).

How did we get here?

This is not Argentina’s first bout of very high inflation. The last was in the late 1980s, when inflation topped 4,000%. After a period of price stability in the 1990s, inflation began to accelerate again in 2005 and then skyrocketed over the summer. Prices rose at an annual rate of 83% in September, one of the highest in the world.

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