Milei insists on the idea of ​​closing the Central Bank of Argentina: 'Sooner or later'

The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, insisted this Thursday on one of the central ideas of his electoral program: the closure of the Central Bank which, he said, he will do “sooner or later.”

(Also read: Argentina and IMF announce agreement to disburse $4.7 billion to the country).

“Sooner or later I am going to close the Central Bank,” said the president. during an interview given to Radio La Red, in which he was asked about the dollarization of the economy.

In addition, he referred to inflation, whose data will be known in a few hours, and said that it will be high, but will herald the fall in prices in the coming months.

The issue is that you see that something that had been accelerating strongly has flattened. “If it flattens out, the next step is a fall,” the president said in a radio interview.

This Thursday, the president lowered his forecast for the monthly data on price increases.

(Keep reading: Argentine Union asks the justice system to stop all of Javier Milei's reforms).

Last weekend, Milei stated that a rise in inflation of around 30% would be “a huge number” and this Thursday he assured that if the figure is closer to 25% it would be “a tremendous success.”

“If we are at that number we have to call (Luis) Caputo (Minister of Economy) and congratulate him,” said the president.

The Argentine Government expected that the inflation figure in the last month of 2023 would be very high and could push the interannual figure close to 200%, a figure that would bring Argentina closer to hyperinflation.

Indeed, inflation in Argentina reached 211.11% in 2023 after a price increase of 25.5% in December, the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) reported on Thursday, in its first report since the ultra-liberal took office. Javier Milei as president.

The president, who made reducing inflation one of his “workhorses” during the electoral campaign, admitted that “there is still a process of rearrangement of relative prices.”

(We recommend: What is Milei's proposal that causes fear in the Argentina team?).

Until then, Milei believes that Argentina will experience a “period of inflation of horrible numbers.”

The monthly data that will be published that Thursday will be the first that includes the price increases registered during the libertarian's mandate, who assumed the Presidency of Argentina on December 10.

The presidential spokesman, Manuel Adorni, considered this Thursday in his daily press conference thatthat “each point of responsibility (of the figure) is the responsibility of the previous Government”led by the Peronist Alberto Fernández (2019-2023).

Argentina's economic situation is especially compromised by its high inflationone of the most pronounced in the world, and due to the social problems derived from the high cost of living in the South American country, where 40% of the population is poor, according to official data.

EFE