Argentina was once a jewel of the New World, a land of large ranches and continual economic growth that competed with the best economies in the world, namely America, in terms of per capita GDP and being an immigrant destination. But then came the policies of Peron and his successors, which have seen business kneecapped and inflation rage out of control.
Until now. Javier Milei, whatever his issues, rose to power and prominence by promising to slash the government and free the economy so that people could live their lives and build wealth without having inflation eviscerate their savings and a massive, cumbersome government wreck their attempts at building business.
Now, his policies are working, and, for the first time in 30 years, Argentina saw a zero percent week-over-week inflation rate for key consumer items like food and drink. That came in the third week of June and was confirmed by President Milei on the morning of Monday, June 24, obviously with no small amount of heartfelt pride and vindication, given that it shows his policies are starting to work.
As background, the study that showed the zero inflation was first reported in a study published on Sunday, June 23, by Econométrica. That is a private Argentine consulting firm; in the shocking, Milei-vindicating study, Econométrica analyzed 8,000 online prices in local supermarkets. Examining the prices on those items, it found that there was no change in prices when compared to the preceding week. What’s more, it found that there had only been a 0.1 percent increase in food and drink over the past fifteen days.
That is shocking and important because such a lack of price increases week over week has not happened in Argentina in three long, society-wrecking decades that instead saw massive inflation that ripped through society week after week, month after month, and year after year. Now, at least for a few weeks, that ground to a halt.
Confirming the good news to Argentinian journalist Eduardo Feinmann, President Milei said that the news shows things are headed in the right direction. Speaking about the success of his policies, he said, “That means that we are on the right path—which there is still a long way to go, but the first signs that things are working are beginning to appear.”
Continuing, he explained, “I sometimes present it, explain it, but, well, I have encountered in recent times gross levels of intellectual dishonesty. Because we all know that wholesale inflation is the one that predicts and anticipates retail inflation and the reality is that inflation in December when we arrived was 54 percent, that annualized gives 17,000.”
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Continuing, he added that the success of his few, simple policies shows the incompetence of his predecessors and detractors, saying, “it also speaks of the misery or incompetence of other colleagues, doesn’t it? But the truth is that there is no country in the world where we are not recognized for our titanic task in terms of lowering inflation.”
Watch President Milei sound off on globalism in January of this year here: