Argentina Hits Lowest Monthly Inflation in 2 Years Under Milei Reforms

The inflation rate in Argentina was 4.2 percent during the month of May, continuing the downward trend of the first five months of 2024, the National Institute of Statistics and Census of Argentina (INDEC) said on Thursday.

May’s 4.2 percent inflation rate marks a dramatic reduction from April’s 8.8 percent and is the lowest monthly inflation rate documented by the South American nation since January 2022.

The rate appears to be the result of President Javier Milei’s “shock therapy” economic measures that seek to undo the precarious state of Argentina’s economy after years of socialist rule. At the time Milei took office in December, Argentina was on the verge of a hyperinflation spiral, with inflation spiking to 25.5 percent that month. Since then, inflation in Argentina has continued to drop monthly and in May reached its lowest monthly rate in over two years.

The results published by INDEC on Thursday were met positively in international markets – stocks from Argentine companies reportedly experienced a surge of up to ten percent on Wall Street. Argentine Sovereign Bonds reportedly rose more than four percent while Sovereign Risk, a statistic that quantifies how “dangerous” a country’s public debt is perceived to be by foreign investors, fell almost 60 points to 1,424.

“With the May data, the ongoing disinflation process deepened. The 3-month moving average of the National CPI variation was at its lowest level since July 2023, and was almost 6 points lower than the 6-month moving average,”  Economy Minister Luis Caputo said on Thursday.

“This last indicator, which still incorporates the months where the main relative price adjustments took place (exchange rate, goods and services under price controls and utility tariffs), is already the lowest since December,” he continued.

In another post on social media on Thursday, Caputo described May’s 4.2 percent inflation rate as an “achievement” of all Argentines and stated, “We are getting closer to building the country we want.”

“Let’s recover hope and pride in being Argentines,” Caputo continued.

May’s inflation rate results were published one day after the Argentine Senate voted to approve Milei’s revised omnibus bill package known as the “Law of Bases and Starting Points for the Freedom of Argentines,” which seeks to enact sweeping reforms to the Argentine state. The project contains the bulk of Milei’s planned reforms for Argentina and would codify the contents of the Necessity and Urgency Decree (DNU) executive order signed by Milei in December, which undid over 350 socialist policies.

The project, approved at the end of a session that lasted over 11 hours, required the tiebreaking vote of Argentine Vice President Victoria Villarruel, who leads the Argentine Senate. Following Wednesday’s general approval, Argentine senators must now convene over the next few days to debate and vote on the law’s contents on an article-by-article basis.

The vote took place as far-left protesters violently rioted around the vicinity of the Argentine Congress in Buenos Aires. The leftist rioters, who burned down a vehicle belonging to a local television channel, reportedly caused over $300,000 in damages.

President Javier Milei is presently in southern Italy participating in the G7 Summit. Milei is reportedly slated to meet with Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva on the sidelines of the summit before departing to Bürgenstock, Switzerland, to participate in the upcoming Ukraine Peace Summit.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.