Under Far Right Wing Leadership of Javier Milei, Argentina Finally Exits Recession With a Quarter of Growth

Recession, afeura!

CNN actually avoids calling him "far right wing" for once.

But that's because he's accomplished something good and important -- and CNN doesn't want to associate success with "the far right wing."

So for this article, and this story alone, he's "libertarian."

Argentina exits recession in win for libertarian president Milei

Argentina has come out of a deep recession in a major victory for the country's unorthodox President Javier Milei, who has spent the past year enacting sweeping -- and painful -- reforms in Latin America's third-largest economy.

Gross domestic product grew 3.9% in the July-to-September quarter compared with the previous three months, Argentina's statistics agency said Monday. The agriculture and mining sectors drove the expansion, with consumer spending also growing strongly. But manufacturing and construction suffered sharp declines in output.

The news of the economic rebound comes a year after Milei was elected on a ticket to tackle chronic hyperinflation and overhaul the long-suffering economy. He has slashed government spending, reducing sky-high inflation and helping repair the country's finances. But these measures have also pushed up unemployment and the poverty rate.

Doubt it.

You don't grow nearly 4% with rising unemployment. Nor are people more impoverished in a growing economy than in a failing one.

The economist has won praise from US President-elect Donald Trump, whose government efficiency tsars, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, appear keen to replicate his budget cuts in the United States.

Argentina's flagship Merval stock index, which tracks around two dozen of the country's most valuable listed companies, closed more than 7% higher Monday. So far this year, the index is up 174% as investors have welcomed Milei's radical reforms.

Milei inherited an economy in crisis, racked by hyperinflation that reached 211% last December and which was fueled by previous governments' money printing to fund spending. According to the International Monetary Fund, the country's biggest creditor, he has delivered "better-than-expected results."

The IMF, which approved a bailout for Argentina in 2018, the fund's biggest ever, sees the economy shrinking by 3.5% overall this year, following a 1.6% contraction last year. Projected growth of 5% next year will, in simple terms, just about reverse those declines.

LOL. What you're reading is the script they have prepared for Trump. When the economy finally starts growing for real again, and inflation finally cools off, CNN will gripe that Trump is merely filling in a hole, not building a mound.

posted by Ace at 02:22 PM

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