"Congratulations to all the heroes who are here, who can produce despite the brutal tax burden they have, they are heroes," Javier Milei began in the talk before a group of producers, the setting he chose for his visit to Expoagro 2024. The The response was loud applause.
The President sat José Luis Espert next to him.
Milei's visit was the missing spice for an Expoagro in which everyone agrees in defining the moment in which the agricultural sector is experiencing as “super optimistic.”
The arrival of the helicopter and the human whirlwind that accompanied him on a brief tour of the exhibition that opened today were a sign that the President has a
very important support force
in the field .
The President had asked the organizers in advance for a talk alone with a few producers.
The place chosen was the large tent that was small for the number of people bidding to hear it.
Javier Milei at Expoagro.
Photo Maxi Failla
In the first row, Guillermo Francos, Karina Milei, Manuel Adorni, and Juan Pazos and Fernando Vilella with the Expoagro authorities.
Everything was going well until midway through his speech
the power went out
and the situation made organizers and guests nervous.
There were 20 minutes of anxiety until the electricity came back on and the President spoke again.
As he did in his speech before Congress last Friday, Milei started by saying that inflation was running at 15,000% when he took office and explained his hyper-orthodox adjustment plan and the sincerity of the exchange rate.
"We fired 50,000 public employees and cut off public works and began the cleanup of the Central Bank, which we received with US$11 billion of net reserves and today we have purchased 9 billion," he explained.
"We had the goal of reaching zero deficit by the end of the year, but we saw that we could reach primary balance in January."
Javier Milei and José Luis Espert before producers at Expoagro 2024.
Milei said that of the 22 crises that Argentina had, 20 were due to fiscal deficit.
"We run
a super tough policy
," she admitted.
"
Zero deficit is very important,
don't be fooled by the usual liars."
"The country is going to become solvent, and that will later result in lower interest rates. And that implies that taxes can be lowered," he promised.
"We achieved the positive result in financial terms in the first month, it never happened. In the world, no one made the fiscal adjustment of 6 points in one month," celebrated the President.
"
The IMF praised us.
Look at the cruelty of the previous Government that left us the leliq of three times the monetary base, we had the crisis in our faces and 11 days after taking office we had to pay the IMF and there was not a dollar.
"Since we have been in the Government, the monetary base has not changed, it is set at 10 billion, we absorb it via the treasury and Bopreal," he explained.
"We still have the same monetary liabilities, but we have 9 billion more dollars, the system is healthier. We also receive a debt from importers of 42 billion. The consequence of these measures is
a sharp drop in inflation.
If it gave 30% in December was already a big number and it gave 25%. And in January it gave 20% and in February,
despite the rise in prepaid bills and rates, it will be around 15%.
The disinflation process is strong."
Milei said that the real drop in spending was 30% in January and 36% in February.
"The fiscal adjustment continues, this is
a blender and a chainsaw."
"After a long time the country risk falls, the gap has completely disappeared. The stabilization process works very strongly. Since the dollar is just another price in the economy, there is no pass through," he explained.
If many economists had studied, they would realize that the dollar is a financial asset and rises first.
At some point inflation is going to collapse.
Note in development