Javier Milei touts 'promises kept' after producing rare Argentine budget surplus

Argentina's first budget surplus in a decade achieved through drastic austerity measures by libertarian President Javier Milei.

Argentina's government said Friday (January 17, 2025) it had produced the country's first budget surplus in more than a decade in 2024, after a year of drastic austerity by libertarian President Javier Milei, whose term has also seen inflation fall.

Economy Minister Luis Caputo said the budget surplus, which amounted to 0.3% of GDP, was the first since 2010.

"The promises have been kept. The 'zero deficit' is a reality. Long live freedom, goddammit," Mr. Milei wrote on Instagram.

On the campaign trail in 2023, the self-styled "anarcho-capitalist" economist brandished a chainsaw as a symbol of his plans to slash public spending and tame inflation after years of eye-watering price increases.

Mr. Caputo said the 2024 surplus was the fruit of a reform program "that surprised the whole world."

Mr. Milei has applied shock therapy to try to stabilise South America's long-struggling second-biggest economy.

He devalued the national currency by 52%, fired more than 33,000 public sector workers, slashed state subsidies on transport, fuel and energy and led a massive deregulation drive.