MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Milei blames lawmakers for the delays in his government's achievements

The President spoke of “serial goofers” doing “their things” to keep the government off track by wanting to spend recklessly

During his appearance at the celebrations of the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange's 170th Anniversary, Argentine President Javier Milei warned that he would veto any initiative from Congress hindering his administration's fiscal balance and elaborated on what he believes to be the reasons for the so-called “blue” (a euphemism for “black market”) exchange rate between the local peso and the US dollar rising again.

A graduate economist, Milei said that “I am going to try to give my explanation of what is happening and how we are going to end up leaving.” He then mentioned some “serial goofers” missing the real cause behind inflation. “There is no multi-causal inflation, they will call that way the different absurdities for which a Central Bank issues because the rest is pure nonsense,” he argued before going on to speak about the “fiscal degenerates” he blamed for the rise in the price of the dollar and the country risk. “The vast majority of economists do not know these things. There is a serious deformation problem,” Milei also claimed.

“The zero deficit is the most brutal way to ensure intertemporal solvency. That is why the country risk went from 2,900 points to 1,100, until Congress started to do its thing,” Milei¡s rationale went. “With the fiscal degenerates wanting to spend like crazy, the market took its toll,” he insisted.

“If they want to pass laws that alter the fiscal balance, you know what, I will veto them all, I will not give away the fiscal balance,” Milei also warned during his speech titled “Money, prices and exchange rate.”

In addition, Milei praised Economy Minister Luis Toto Caputo for his administration's achievements since he took office on Dec. 10, 2023.

”As we still have capital control, if you buy dollars indirectly, not directly, by hitting the price of bonds through solvency (they tell us) 'uy the dollar is going up', and yes of course, as long as the fiscal degenerates want to play theirs, they will see it in the price of the dollar,“ Milei also explained.

The President also underscored the work of Minister Sandra Petovello: ”The poor Minister of Human Capital is being beaten because she is uncovering scams,“ he stressed. Regarding Security, Milei noted that under Minister Patricia Bullrich ”federal forces entered [the province of] Santa Fe and we reduced homicides by 70%.“

Milei also highlighted that the Libertarian government ”fired a lot of public employees“ in addition to keeping the salaries of those not sacked trailing inflation. He considered that an achievement that will help put an end to exchange rate controls (also known as ”stocks”) as soon as a “convergence of the inflation rate with the devaluation rate” is attained.

“The first step we are aiming at is to map the inflation rate with the devaluation rate. When we reach inflation of 2% per month, we go to 1%, and when it has disappeared at levels close to 0, we will have to choose whether we go to a zero devaluation scheme, or whether we let it float,” he added.