This post was originally published on France24
Since taking power as Argentina’s president in December of last year, the “anarcho-capitalist” Javier Milei has been applying a drastic austerity policy. Milei’s aim is to reduce sky-high inflation and cut Argentina’s fiscal deficit to zero. During his campaign, he brandished a chainsaw as a symbol of the budget cuts he intended to implement once he became president. He now has put his promises into practice: eliminating entire ministries, carrying out mass redundancies of civil servants and scrapping most subsidies. These sweeping budget cuts have greatly reduced the purchasing power of Argentinians and have plunged the country into recession. Our correspondents report.