Milei’s devastating austerity plans are already hitting road blocks

Analysis. Two years ago, the IMF was calling for lowering the deficit to 0.9 percent of GDP, but Milei has already approved a shock economic plan to bring it down to zero.

written by Federico Larsen

Topic Latin America

January 8, 2024

On Friday, representatives of the International Monetary Fund and Javier Milei’s far-right government met for the first time in Buenos Aires to renegotiate the terms of the Extended Fund Facility program signed in 2022 to resolve the matter of the $45 billion debt incurred in 2018. The last face-to-face meeting was in August, when then-economy minister and presidential candidate Sergio Massa managed to wrest an agreement from the IMF for temporary relief – one which Buenos Aires proceeded not to fulfill.

Now, however, the ones in charge of Argentina’s fortunes are advocates of fiscal discipline even stricter than traditionally prescribed by the Fund’s specialists. Two years ago, the IMF was calling for lowering the deficit........

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