Argentina’s new libertarian government will devalue the peso by about half, slash public spending and reduce energy and transport subsidies as it battles to contain an economic crisis and spiralling inflation.
Economy minister Luis Caputo gave a summary of the measures in a televised message on Tuesday, in which he spoke at length on the South American nation’s dire situation but gave little detail. Transmission of his broadcast was delayed several times, with local media saying the minister was re-recording it, and no news conference was held afterwards.
“If we carry on as we are, we will have hyperinflation,” Caputo said in the address. Prices are expected to rise more than 200 per cent this calendar year. “Out of the last 123 years, Argentina ran a fiscal deficit in 113 . . . we have come to solve the addiction to fiscal deficits,” he added.