Argentina Onward

It’s a good time to be an Argentine. That is, at least in modern history, an unusual statement, but for a country used to economic chaos and national decline, the vistas are all the rosier. Inflation in May dropped to just 1.5 percent, a rate not seen since May 2020 and a miraculous rate in comparison with the 25.5 percent monthly inflation rate of December 2023, the month President Javier Milei took office. Economic growth year-over-year in the first quarter of 2025 reached 5.8 percent, slightly under economists’ projections but still topping China.

Milei, an avowed anarchocapitalist with many strange personal quirks—he claims to be a tantric sex guru and has cloned his deceased dog five times—was an unlikely choice for national revival. But his libertarian political program continues to be a massive success, having tamed inflation and jump-started economic growth. Milei’s severe policies—slashing government jobs by the thousands, cutting regulations, reforming the tax base, and vetoing even highly popular spending bills passed by the Argentine legislature—have shored up the country’s balance sheet and made it possible for his administration to pull off the incredible accomplishment of ending Argentina’s suffocating regime of currency controls.

The combination of rampant inflation and strict restrictions on access to dollars had created a voracious demand on the black market for stable, American money. Argentines receiving a paycheck would often immediately stop in at one of the ubiquitous arbolitos—black market currency traders—and swap out their pesos for dollars to preserve their buying power. The result was a permanent crisis of confidence in the domestic currency, aggravating inflation further.

That has now ended. In April, Milei successfully secured a loan from the IMF, giving the government sufficient reserves to lift restrictions on purchasing dollars, and allowed the Argentine peso to float at market price (within a band regulated by the central bank’s purchase or sale of dollars and pesos). Skeptics argued that people would rush to sell pesos for dollars, draining the central bank’s dollar reserves, but the markets proved to have more confidence in Milei than anxiety about inflation, and the central bank hasn’t needed to intervene by propping up the peso.

Allowing the free exchange of pesos and dollars has been vital to restoring confidence in the currency, cooling inflation, and even creating price deflation in some commodities. It has also made the country a vastly more promising target for foreign investment, which previously was severely limited in its ability to repatriate its Argentine earnings. 

Milei’s approval ratings reflect his economic success. The Argentine president has, according to Morning Consult’s polling data for June 3–9, an approval rating of 60 percent and a disapproval rating of just 36 percent, making him one of the world’s most popular heads of state. His political party, La Libertad Avanza (LLA), is also in good shape for the upcoming legislative elections in October, where polling averages project it will take first place at the ballot box.

All of this is a remarkable change from just two years ago, when Milei’s presidential candidacy was still widely regarded as unserious. His advisory team was actually assembled with the assistance of the Peronist frontrunner Sergio Massa, who thought he could use Milei as a prop against center-right candidate Patricia Bullrich. All signs pointed towards Massa, the economy minister under the disastrous government of Alberto Fernández, helming Argentina in the future and perpetuating the decades-long Peronist control of the country. Thankfully, the Argentine people had better instincts.

It’s impossible to say how long Milei’s success will last—politics is fickle, in Argentina even more than in most countries. Eventually the government may encounter a situation that libertarianism is not well-equipped to handle; at some point the people will want a change of pace. But for now, the future is looking bright for the first time in a long time. Javier Milei’s skillful political maneuvering and good economic sense have laid the foundation for a significantly more prosperous Argentina than was even imaginable just a short time ago.

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