MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Milei reviews his first year in office

Milei said his reform of the State is much stronger than the one under Carlos Menem in the 1990s

Argentine President Javier Milei reviewed his first year in office, during which he did manage to slow down inflation, albeit at a cost. “I want to thank the ordinary Argentines who were treated as second-class citizens for decades,” he said during his broadcast message.

 “Exactly one year ago a fiscal degenerate came from printing 13 points of the GDP in one year to win an election,” he added in reference to former Economy Minister Sergio Massa, whom he defeated in the runoff. “Today, monetary issuance is a thing of the past,” he also stressed.

Milei claimed that “we are coming out of the desert, the recession is over and the country has started to grow.” In his view, “we are getting closer every day to inflation being little more than a bad memory.” For the Libertarian President, “the exchange rate gap is dead and the free dollar is the same as it was a year ago,” he also pointed out. “The average salary went from US$ 300 to US$ 1,100.”

The first graduate Economist ever to become head of State also noted that “we are paying the debt left to us by the serial defaulters” and insisted that “the price of rents fell 30% in one year.”

Milei also argued that the “structural reform” under him was ”eight times bigger than that of (Carlos) Menem“ in the 1990s. ”We opened the skies, deregulated land transportation,“ and eliminated other restrictions and taxes while enabling satellite Internet and increasing competition in the medical insurance sector.

The President also claimed to have uncovered the fudgy businesses of the political caste because his administration ”came to put an end to the privileges regime that turned good Argentines into second-class citizens.“

Milei also announced a radical reform that will reduce national taxes by up to 90% and return ”fiscal autonomy to the provinces.“

Regarding the so-called currency exchange stocks, Milei said: ”We are working on a definitive solution to the problem of the Central Bank's stocks, which will be solved through a new agreement with the International Monetary Fund or with private parties.“

”All Argentines will be able to use the currency of their choice in their daily transactions, except for the payment of taxes, which for the time being will continue to be in pesos,“ he also pointed out.

The president also announced foreign investments above US$ 11.8 billion in infrastructure, mining, energy, and technology. ”We are working to attract investments in excess of US$ 200 billion and thus generate a competitive fiscal environment,“ he also explained.

In addition, Milei announced a reform of Mercosur to eliminate internal tariff barriers and reduce the common external tariff. ”We want a free trade agreement with the United States, which should have been signed 19 years ago,“ he insisted.

Regarding public spending, the president ratified his commitment to the ”deep chainsaw“ to reduce the size of the state. ”We are going to carry out a relentless audit to advance with the deepest reduction of public spending in Argentine history, which will bequeath us a smaller, more effective, and cheaper state for everyone,“ he noted. Every public agency or company deemed unnecessary will be eliminated. ”Every task that does not correspond to the National State will be eliminated,“ he added.

Milei also announced plans for repeat offenders to face harsher sentences and launched an anti-mafia bill, similar to the RICO law in the United States. He also announced the creation of a Federal Criminal Investigation Agency, which will have a structure similar to that of the FBI. He also mentioned the creation of an Anti-Narcoterrorism Unit for which ”we will seek the cooperation of our Mercosur neighbors.”