The month Javier Milei took over as president of Argentina in December 2023, monthly inflation was 25.5%. The annual rate for that year was 211%. Now, it’s plummeted to 32% – still very high, but more stable.

Milei, a right-wing populist famous for wielding a chainsaw on stage to make a point about fiscal conservatism, made cutting inflation a central part of his campaign.

And yet economists like Can Cinar from City St George's, University of London, warn that Milei’s battle against inflation is more of a mirage, than a miracle. In this episode, Cinar explains how Milei’s government managed to cut inflation by deliberately suppressing people’s wages, and the stark impact these policies are having on Argentinians.

This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware with production assistance from Katie Flood. Mixing by Eleanor Brezzi and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the full credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

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• Kemi Badenoch says she wants to be Britain’s Javier Milei – but is the Argentinian president a model to follow?
• What’s inflation – and how exactly do we measure it?
• Javier Milei’s victory in Argentina’s midterm elections is also a win for Trump
• Currency controls and debt in Argentina: the stakes are high if Milei’s latest economic gamble doesn’t pay off
• Javier Milei’s inflation ‘miracle’ in Argentina is a warning to the world, not a blueprint

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Voices of the South