Six months after Javier Milei was inaugurated as President, Argentina has recorded an inflation-free week for the first time in three decades, VOZ reports.
As part of his drastic cost-cutting measures to combat the rapidly rising inflation, Mr Milei sold off two national planes, merged 18 government departments into nine, slashed the number of government cars and drivers in half, and devalued the currency by 100 per cent.
The President, barely six months in office, went as far as flying commercial airplanes to lead by example and demonstrate to the people that he was willing to pay the price necessary to revive the collapsing economy.
It appeared the strategies were paying off as Econometrica, a private consulting firm, which monitored the prices of at least 8,000 food prices in local online stores, noted that the price tags on the food items did not change in the previous week, something that had never happened in 30 years.
Mr Milei also confirmed the development in a radio interview on Radio Mitre, describing the outcome as proof “that we are on the right path.”
“That means that we are on the right path — there is still a long way to go, but the first signs that things are working are beginning to appear,” Mr Milei said on Racio Mitre on Monday.
The Argentine economy is in contrast to Nigeria’s whose President Bola Tinubu, like Mr Milei, claimed to have inherited a dying economy but has not done much to reduce government expenditures.
For instance, Mr Tinubu travelled alongside 1411 persons last December to Dubai for the COP28 climate summit, provoking a nationwide furore over perceived squandering of scarce government resources.
Inflation has worsened during Mr Tinubu’s first year in office, which he marked last month, despite his promises to tackle the crisis during the campaign.
Mr Tinubu approved N14 billion to renovate Vice President Kashim Shettima’s residence even as the majority of Nigerians languished in poverty due to his hasty fuel subsidy removal and naira devaluation.
Inflation rose to 34 per cent last month, according to the recent data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
