In 1.5 years, Milei has radically cut inflation, but Argentina is one of the most expensive countries in Latin America.
Cesar Martinez, 45, works full-time at a butcher shop in Buenos Aires, but in the last year, he has had to pick up other jobs to make it to the end of the month. So, when the government of President Javier Milei publicly celebrated a new drop in the inflation rate in June as a sign of a recovering economy, something didn’t quite add up.
“The money one makes is never enough to afford everything, even the most basic things,” Martinez says.
The sentiment is a shared one on the streets of Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires.
Little over a year and a half since taking office, Milei managed to fulfil one of his campaign promises: radically cut inflation, which had reached a record monthly rate of 25 percent in December 2023. Now at 1.6 percent, the monthly rate is among the lowest since April 2020.
