Recently sworn-in President of Argentina, Javier Milei, has sold two national private jets and slashed the number of official vehicles and drivers by half as a show of his commitment to lowering government spending and hyperinflation during his administration. The move will save the country $3 billion annually.
According to a statement released on Friday by his spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, Mr Milei had resorted to the jets sale and reduction of government drivers to stave off Argentina’s 3,678 per cent annual inflation rate that the minister of economy, Luis Toto Caputo, predicted.
“Talking about 15,000% inflation is frightening for everyone and that is what we are working on,” Mr Adorni told journalists at his daily presser last Friday. “It is good to understand that today inflation is running at around 3,678 per cent per year; this one per cent of daily inflation leaves us immersed in a hyperinflation that we are trying to avoid and we are making an effort so that the catastrophe does not end up happening.”
The two airplanes sold off belonged to YPF, a government-owned oil and gas company, but were expended to salvage Argentina’s ballooning inflation since they were “used almost exclusively by privileged” statesmen, Mercopress quoted Mr Adorni as saying.
“One of the great objectives we have as a government is to put an end to privileges. The adjustment we intend to make on political expenses, only in operating expenses, is around US$ 3 billion per year”, stressed Mr Adorni.
The Argentine has continually shown himself to be prudent as he raffled off his last salary as a lawmaker on Friday, fulfilling his political vow where he had promised to donate his lawmaking monthly remuneration.
“This is the last draw for my salary as a deputy because I now got myself another job,” the 53-year-old Argentine president said in an Instagram live.
