The Blubber

Milei has anounced Argentina's first budget surplus in 16 years, per AFP.

Argentina's newly elected President Javier Milei has praised the country's first quarterly budget surplus since 2008 as a "historic achievement."

In the first quarter of 2024, Argentina recorded a budget surplus of approximately 275 billion pesos (about $309 million at the official rate), Milei announced on national TV late Monday.

This surplus represented 0.2 percent of GDP.

"This is the first quarter with a financial surplus since 2008," Milei noted, referencing the first year of his left-wing rival Cristina Kirchner's presidency.

Milei, who assumed office in December, celebrated this as "a feat of historic significance on a global scale."

"If the state does not spend more than it collects and does not issue (money), there is no inflation. This is not magic," stated the self-described "anarcho-capitalist."

Milei won the elections last November promising to reduce the deficit to zero—a goal even more ambitious than what the International Monetary Fund requires, with whom Argentina has a $44 billion loan.

To achieve this, he implemented an austerity program that included cutting subsidies for transport fuel and energy, despite the country experiencing annual inflation of 290 percent, a poverty rate of 60 percent, and a 20 percent loss in purchasing power for wage earners.

Thousands of public servants have been laid off.

"Don't expect a way out through public spending," Milei cautioned on Monday.

University students, supported by unions and opposition parties, have organized a march for Tuesday to protest against cuts in funding for higher public education, research, and science under the new administration.

Universities have declared a budgetary emergency after the government approved a 2024 budget identical to that of 2023, despite inflation nearing 300 percent and nearly a 500-percent rise in energy costs, which higher learning institutions say has brought them to their knees.

"At the rate at which they are funding us, we can only function for another two to three months," warned University of Buenos Aires (UBA) rector Ricardo Gelpi.