WASHINGTON, June 18 — The IMF sharply downgraded its 2024 economic outlook for Argentina yesterday, as the country implements a series of wide-ranging economic reforms under its new president, Javier Milei.
A self-declared “anarcho-capitalist,” Milei has vowed to halt Argentina’s economic decline and reduce the budget deficit to zero.
Since taking office in December, Milei has embarked on a programme to slash public spending and bring down inflation, which remained at an annual rate of more than 275 per cent last month.
In updated economic forecasts published yesterday, the International Monetary Fund said it now expects Argentina’s economy to contract by 3.5 per cent this year, 0.75 percentage points more than its previous projections, due to a “deeper contraction” in non-agricultural output.
The updated forecasts were published a few days after the IMF executive board voted to approve an almost US$800 million payout to Argentina under an existing loan agreement, bringing the total disbursements under the programme to more than US$41 billion.
The IMF said it now expects Argentine inflation to ease to an average annual rate of 232.8 per cent this year, down more than 20 percentage points from its previous forecast in January.
The easing inflation outlook is “supported by refinements in the monetary and FX (foreign exchange) policy framework and a recovery in peso demand from historically low levels,” the IMF said in the report published yesterday. — AFP
