Overview

• President-elect Javier Milei, a right-wing populist, has won the presidency in Argentina, causing citizens to anxiously watch the exchange rate of the peso with the U.S. dollar, a widely watched barometer of the nation’s economic health.
• Inflation in Argentina is currently running at an annual rate of more than 140%, with prices pushed higher by a weaker currency that makes imports more expensive.
• Milei has promised drastic measures to curb price hikes, including deep public spending cuts and dollarization of the economy.
• Milei, a self-described anarcho capitalist, has said he will abolish the Central Bank and has promoted replacing the local currency with the dollar to rein in inflation.
• Despite fears of a major run on the currency following Milei's election, a large depreciation didn’t fully materialize; rather, the dollar’s value in the parallel retail market – popularly known as the “blue dollar” – increased some 13%.