Javier Milei, Staunch Economist, Brings Argentina’s Inflation To Less Than 3%

Staunchly libertarian Argentinian President Javier Milei’s economic plans are proving enormously successful, as the country’s inflation plunged to 2.7% in October, the lowest level in three years.

Milei was elected roughly one year ago, but the measures he has taken have revivified the once-crippled Argentinian economy, where inflation dropped in October to 2.7% after registering at 3.5% in October. Milei had promised to lower inflation to less than 3% before the end of 2024.

“We are decreasing the tax that creates the most distortion: inflation,” Economy Minister Luis Caputo stated.

In 2022, the Argentinian inflation rate was 72.43%. Barrons reported that when Milei took office last December, “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.”

“We are emerging from the desert, the country is starting to grow again,” Milei declared.

In early October, students protested in Buenos Aires because Milei’s government implemented strong spending cuts at public universities.

The Economist noted in June that Milei had “slashed spending” while the  “central bank stopped printing money to finance the deficit,” 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.”

In January, Milei spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he stated, “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 added. “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.”

He concluded, “Do not surrender to the advance of the state. The state is not the solution. The state is the problem itself. … long live freedom!”

In May 2024, Milei spoke in Spain, where he said: “Let us not let the dark, black, satanic, atrocious, horrible carcinogenic side that is socialism prevail over us.”

Before he was elected, Milei held numerous rallies in front of thousands of young people at which he would educate them on conservative economic policies, quoting famed economists such as Friedrich Hayek.