Argentina's economy exits recession in milestone for Javier Milei

https://www.ft.com/content/c92c1c71-99e7-49c1-b885-253033e26ea5

by reducesuffering • 2 years ago

68 44 2 years ago

ft.com

hackernudes• 2 years ago

https://archive.is/g2MXp

ls222• 2 years ago

Thank the IMF - https://archive.is/cR3Zi

Most of the bail out goes back to Wall St as interest payments on loans Argentina was about to default on and prevents China showing up and taking over. Milei is just a clown to keep the plebs entertained.

derelicta4• 2 years ago

Of course the American bourgeois press rejoices! They are plundering the Argentinian's working class to fill the pockets of their western Overlords...

blackhawkC176• 2 years ago

With rhetoric like this, one wonders why Argentina has a perpetually mediocre economy.

4gotunameagain2• 2 years ago

One could argue that any suspicion of the ruling class in South America and US demonisation is entirely justified:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_r...

laurencerowe2• 2 years ago

The FT is British not American and their coverage is hardly supportive of Milei.

derelicta4• 2 years ago

Oh. You are right for the British thing.

I guess it's the British bourgeois press that rejoices then!

fazeirony2• 2 years ago

leave it to ft.com to paint this as a feel good, happy story. meanwhile, argentinians are facing record poverty levels, inflation at extraordinary levels, and extreme wealth inequality. but hey, recession exited! austerity 1 working proles 0.

mherrmann• 2 years ago

Official inflation numbers are extremely low. How does that square with what you just said?

pitpatagain3• 2 years ago

They are not extremely low, they are just lower than they have been. Annualized inflation is still ~160% down from a high of ~300%. Monthly inflation numbers are like what the US sees in a year.

fazeirony2• 2 years ago

i also hear official inflation numbers in the US are 'low' right now too, yet that doesn't mean prices are down or that things are affordable to the common person. my lived reality talking to actual citizens tells me a lot of folks are struggling. if anything, applying that same experience to argentina is my mistake. i guess.

oskarkk2• 2 years ago

I think that you may have seen month-over-month inflation in Argentina, which is 2.4% for November (the lowest in a couple of years). That may seem low, but that's just the change in prices from one month to the next. In USA, the month-over-month inflation is around 0.3%, while yearly inflation is 2.7%. In Argentina, yearly inflation is 166% right now (and it was worse before!), but if they kept 2.4% month-over-month for a year, they'd have 33% yearly inflation - that's still not "extremely low" (e.g. the recent inflation surge in the US only peaked at 9.1% yearly), but it would be the lowest for Argentina since 2018.

https://tradingeconomics.com/argentina/inflation-cpi

https://tradingeconomics.com/argentina/inflation-rate-mom

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/inflation-cpi

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/inflation-rate-mo...

dabauws• 2 years ago

how could it not be a happy story. meanwhile prior, argentinians were facing even higher poverty levels, inflation at even higher extraordinary levels, and were facing extreme wealth inequality.

At least now, their currency isn't being constantly debased, and the savings of ordinary argentinians aren't being inflated away into the hands of an irresponsible government.

laurencerowe2• 2 years ago

While one might argue that by bringing down inflation things could improve in the long run, it's not accurate to say that previously "argentinians were facing even higher poverty levels". From the article poverty rates have gotten worse:

The country’s poverty rate soared 11 points in the first half of 2024 to 53 per cent.

pitpatagain3• 2 years ago

Inflation is still extremely high and poverty levels are even higher now. IMHO the pre-Milei status quo was unsustainable and the directionality of changes he's making is positive, but they are still very much deep in the Pain part of trying to break out of where they were at.

Many people really are much worse off right now. It has to be taken on faith that this is a short term suffering that will pay off later.

Izikiel434• 2 years ago

Wow, this is a perfect example of talking without knowing anything.

Previous government accrued over 1000% inflation over 4 years, and shit was hitting the fan really hard. Money was worthless, and people spent it as soon as they got it because it was losing ~10% of its value per month.

Current government did an amazing turnaround and fix of the economy, inflation this year is down by half, and monthly inflation rates are back to 2019 levels, which for a normal country is horrible, but for Argentina is pretty great.

dismalaf• 2 years ago

Argentina has had poverty for decades now. It was glossed over by successive Peronist governments constantly printing money and giving it to people, which is what's lead to the insane inflation (which has come way down under Milei) and destroyed Argentina's economy.

This is a happy story. Argentina actually has a shot at being a real country with a real economy.

paradox242• 2 years ago

Because everything was going real well up to now.

facialwipe• 2 years ago

Average monthly income for Argentines is a few hundred dollars a month. The largest private employer in Argentina is headquartered in Uruguay.

Argentina is essentially living a Hunger Games reality. An economy designed to solely benefit the capital. Everyone else exists to extract resources for the capital.

blackhawkC176• 2 years ago

Argentina is an economy weakened by Peronism, an ideology that constantly interferes with the free markets, with excessive regulations that incentivize rent-seeking and unproductive businesses.

It'll be much richer if it was designed to "benefit the capital," but it's far from it.

ksec• 2 years ago

Writing this in case I forget. Somewhere on Twitter. ( And I cant find the exact tweet )

Eliminating Jobs in the public sector with little to zero productivity force those people into private sector and increases national productivity.

Argentina's economy exits recession in milestone for Javier Milei

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