Speaking to reporters on Jan. 11, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva lavished praise on the Malthusian economic program of Argentine President Javier Milei as “the most impressive in recent history.” He has brought down inflation and created a “solid program of stabilization and growth,” she said, Mercosur Press reported today.
There are just a few caveats, however, Georgieva mentioned. Milei’s draconian budget slashing created an alarming 52.9% poverty rate for the first half of 2024 compared to the same period a year earlier and drove indigence up to 18%. Fearing that the poverty rate could cut into support for Milei’s policies—he is hated by increasingly impoverished citizens—Georgieva recommended he address this, and do something about high utility rates, low wages and pensions which have been slashed by what he calls his “chainsaw.”
