For Javier Milei, fond of hyperboles, there has never been such a large gap in history between what is happening in the Argentine economy and what is said about it in the public sphere. This Thursday, in front of the business audience at the Latam Economic Forum in Buenos Aires, he reviewed a selection of auspicious numbers from his administration and, like his Minister of Economy minutes earlier, predicted that this distortion will become evident in the next presidential elections, scheduled for 2027. The economy, the Government assures, will prevail over politics and the people will give La Libertad Avanza another four years in the Casa Rosada.
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“We can have a little zigzag in the indicators, but the trend is clear: Argentina is heading towards a scenario of lower inflation and higher growth,” summarized the president, who was received with a standing ovation by about 300 businessmen and, before giving his speech, received from a rabbi a stone brought from Jerusalem and a blessing. “Argentina has been expanding at a rate of 5% annually, quintupling the rate at which we were growing,” he specified, adding that “it lifted 14 million out of poverty,” two million more than his Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, had said.
These data coexist with the feeling of people, reflected in surveys, who say that their present does not match the successes praised by the Government. The short circuit is pointed out by journalists but also by figures of economic orthodoxy, aligned with his policies, which shows that official data are averages that do not describe an unequal and fragmented socioeconomic reality. And that coexist with others that have a great impact on people’s lives, such as the decline in the purchasing power of wages or pensions.
Before the president, Minister Caputo listed a long list of data as a confessed strategy to “combat the narrative.” Among other things, he mentioned that inflation is again declining after ten months of acceleration and anticipated that in May it will be lower than the last published, 2.6% in April. Caputo ―with whom Milei has a “symbiotic relationship,” according to his own words― spoke of a record of goods exports in April, for almost 9 billion dollars, and projected that this year total exports will reach 100 billion dollars, with agribusiness contributing 17 billion dollars in the first four months of the year.
Caputo even blushed at the praise he said he received from the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, who congratulated him and held Argentina up as an example at a G20 meeting for being the country that has best navigated the external shock generated by the war; the only one registering a fiscal and energy surplus. He also celebrated the 16 investment projects that were closed under the Large Investment Incentive Regime (RIGI), but admitted how difficult it is to attract private capital to the country. In fact, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the country recorded the lowest level of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) among the main economies of Latin America in 2025.
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“Let’s not let ourselves be psychopathized anymore by what is heard and seen,” insisted the minister, aiming his darts at the media. In the same line as the Secretary of Agriculture, Sergio Iraeta, who this week showed frustration at not being applauded at a public event, Caputo said that the “attitudinal” is fundamental. “If people buy the story and get depressed because the newspapers say everything is bad, one will withdraw, when in reality the data show that we have made a historic change and that the course is right,” he pointed out.
In the 2024 midterm elections, Milei won with more than 40% of the votes, which caused surprise due to the support he received when society was experiencing for the first time the virulence of his chainsaw against spending. The Government trusts that something similar will happen in the next presidential elections. “Many expect a classic election year in Argentina, but let me tell you my opinion: it will be the opposite of what journalists say, what the market believes. It will be an absolutely atypical election year because the economy for the first time will take politics down,” Caputo summed up. For the minister, the strategy of “making noise” to destabilize will not be effective. “With internal, external, internal shock —he said referring to fights within the cabinet— the economy is fine,” said the minister. “People are not stupid, they realize.”
In the front row of the auditorium were the presidential secretary, Karina Milei, whom the event organizer, financial advisor Darío Epstein, defined as an inseparable part of the president himself. “There is no Javier if there is no Karina. They are the same,” he said before introducing him. Also present was the Chief of Cabinet, Manuel Adorni, whom the president keeps in his position despite revelations that put him under the justice system’s scrutiny for alleged illicit enrichment.
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