Argentinian President Javier Milei, a libertarian, has been so successful in reviving his country’s economy that he actually reduced inflation from 72.43% in 2022 to just 2.7% this month.
After taking office approximately one year ago, Milei immediately got to work dismantling the bloated bureaucracy and reviving Argentina’s once-crippled economy. The measures he has taken have caused inflation to drop to a staggeringly low 2.7% in October, meaning that Milei successfully kept his promise to lower inflation to less than 3% before the end of this year.
Milei. Month after month:
✅️ Slashing inflation.
✅️ Demolishing country risk.
✅️ Destroying deficit spending.Returning Argentina to prosperity.
Viva la libertad, carajo.@JMilei pic.twitter.com/oCOw5pfBNw
— Daniel Lacalle (@dlacalle_IA) November 13, 2024
Milei’s Economy Minister Luis Caputo issued a statement about the victory for the Argentinian people, stating: “We are decreasing the tax that creates the most distortion: inflation.”
The inflation rate in Argentina in 2022 was a shocking 72.43%, and it proceeded to rise after Milei took office due to his devaluation of the currency — though that was expected to happen initially. According to reporting from Barrons, when Milei took office in December 2023, “monthly inflation leapt by 25.5 percent after he devalued the peso by more than 50 percent. It has since been on a downward trajectory, coming in at under five percent each month since May. … Milei, who wielded a chainsaw on the campaign trail last year as a symbol of his plan to slash public spending, has cut energy and transport subsidies and thousands of public sector jobs.”
Milei also spoke out about his success, stating that Argentina is “emerging from the desert, the country is starting to grow again.”
The libertarian president has faced strong opposition in his efforts from people who depend on the government to fund their lifestyles, including students in Buenos Aires who protested in early October over his decision to slash spending at public universities.
According to a June report from The Economist, Milei “slashed spending” while the “central bank stopped printing money to finance the deficit,” with the outlet adding that “by most economic measures Mr Milei is beating expectations.”
“Argentina has had fiscal surpluses for five months in a row. Inflation spiked after a sharp devaluation, but has since fallen to a monthly rate of 4.2% in May, the lowest in over two years,” the report continued.
Milei has been a staunch supporter of extremely limited government, and has spoken out on the world stage about the West’s decline into socialism and stifling the freedoms of citizens.
During a January speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he declared: “Today, I’m here to tell you that the Western world is in danger. And it is in danger because those who are supposed to have to defend the values of the West are co-opted by a vision of the world that inexorably leads to socialism and thereby to poverty.”
“Unfortunately, in recent decades, the main leaders of the Western world have abandoned the model of freedom for different versions of what we call collectivism. Some have been motivated by well-meaning individuals who are willing to help others, and others have been motivated by the wish to belong to a privileged caste,” Milei continued. “We’re here to tell you that collectivist experiments are never the solution to the problems that afflict the citizens of the world. Rather, they are the root cause.”
Milei concluded his speech with a rallying cry, stating: “Do not surrender to the advance of the state. The state is not the solution. The state is the problem itself. … long live freedom!”
"Do not surrender to the advance of the state. The state is not the solution. The state is the problem itself. You are the true protagonists of this story! Long live freedom, damn it!" — Javier Milei. pic.twitter.com/QEt1XoGOSu
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) January 17, 2024
