MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Milei says conditions for Argentina's recovery being created

The Argentine President warned businesspeople that they would have to pick up the baton from here

Argentine President Javier Milei Friday told a group of businesspeople attending the Llao Llao Forum in Bariloche that he did not believe in a “dirigist” economy in which the State would be involved in every step along the productive process. He also insisted his administration was “creating the conditions for Argentina to grow again” from “the worst crises in history.”

“We inherited debt maturities for 25 billion dollars and in pesos for the equivalent of 90 billion dollars,” he also explained.

The head of state underlined his Government's fiscal adjustment with gradualism. To implement gradualist policies, “it is necessary to have time and financing, two aspects that we did not have,” Milei argued. “We are creating the conditions for Argentina to grow again, you will take care of the rest,” Milei warned his audience. “When you go from a hyper-socialist economy to a market economy, you may have additional problems,” he also explained.

“Why do you want to touch the exchange rate?” he wondered rhetorically regarding the US dollar falling to AR$ 1,000 under the Libertarian administration.

“The 15% of the GDP that the State previously took in fiscal deficit for parasitic activities returns to the private sector for productive investments. Those who have the power to move Argentina forward, [by] changing the future and creating wealth are” the businessmen and not the politicians.

“The future will be with many tax cuts,” Milei also promised during his speech of just over an hour.

“We found ourselves with a deficit of 17 points of GDP. The monetary base could quadruple in one day. That ended up in hyperinflation”, insisted Milei, who also recalled that the previous Government of Alberto Fernández “issued 13 points of the GDP.”

Regarding the Senate's wage hike, Milei said it represented a victory for him because those lawmakers belonging to the political caste exposed themselves.

Milei flew aboard the T-11 aircraft to Bariloche's international airport from where he was taken by helicopter to the Llao Llao Hotel to circumvent a roadblock by the State workers' ATE labor union.