Thousands protested across Argentina on Friday to demand food aid for the poor as soaring inflation and President Javier Millay’s tough austerity measures take a toll.
Since taking office in December, Milei has slashed public spending, winning the approval of the International Monetary Fund and securing a budget surplus for the first time in 12 years in a country whose previous governments oversaw runaway inflation and multiple fiscal deficits. judgments.
However, annual inflation has still risen to 254%, the price of bus tickets has more than tripled and the government has frozen crucial aid in soups that have more and more mouths to feed.
“In little more than two months, this government has created a very critical situation of poverty,” Alejandro Gramajo of the UTEP union told AFP.
“No to rising transport costs,” chanted the protesters, along with chants of “Hunger doesn’t wait” and “Pots are empty, pockets too.”
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Argentina’s 38,000 meal centers, which provide a hot plate of food to those in need, received the last batch of government-provided supplies in November ahead of the inauguration of Milei — a libertarian and self-described “anarcho-capitalist.”
Millay’s government says it plans to check the needs of each individual kitchen and put in place a system of direct aid, aiming to cut out middlemen such as social movements it describes as “poverty managers”.
“There is no money,” Millay said when he took office, pledging to end “decades of decline” by his overspending predecessors, whose rule was marked by repeated inflationary crises and debt.
The 53-year-old leader devalued the peso by more than 50 percent, cut tens of thousands of public jobs and halved the number of government ministries.
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An outsider elected on a wave of anger over the country’s decline, Milei has warned the population that the economic crisis will get worse before it gets better.
“When we hit rock bottom, we’ll bounce back,” he said.
Social tensions are rising, with train drivers and health care workers going on strike this week and teachers over tools next.
However, Millay’s government has received praise from the International Monetary Fund — to which it owes $44 billion — for its “bold actions to restore macroeconomic stability.”
The government says monthly inflation is coming under control and should be in single digits by the second half of the year.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with Millay in Buenos Aires on Friday and said “the work being done to stabilize the economy is absolutely vital”.
“We see a great opportunity here in Argentina,” he said, adding that the country could “rely on” the United States as it works to end the economic crisis.
Source: AFP