Highlights of yesterday's speech by President Milei

ARGENTINA - In Brief 11 Dec 2024 by Joaquin Cottani

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Yesterday, December 10th, 2024, President Javier Milei addressed the Nation on the occasion of the first anniversary of his government. It was a 37-minute speech broadcast on national radio and television in which, instead of highlighting this year's achievements, which were many, he focused on the government's main objectives for 2025, mainly in the economic field but also in other areas such as foreign policy (trade agreements) and national security (the Federal Police). On the strictly economic side, there were no big surprises. Some of the "announcements" were, in fact, confirmations of things that the president had already said, such as the that the cepo cambiario will be eliminated sometime in 2025, while the others referred to projects of unquestionable desirability but for which legislative support is needed (e.g., tax, labor, and pension reforms). Regarding the cepo, the president said that its total lifting will definitely happen next year, although he did not specify if this would be before or after the midterm elections of October 26. He complemented this by also confirming that the monetary regime the economy is transitioning to is one of "currency competition" rather than dollarization. He described the former as the freedom of people to use any currency they want in domestic transactions except for paying taxes. Here, an important qualification is required. Currency competition goes beyond the legality of transacting in currencies other than the peso. As Minister Sturzenegger told the press after the address, such legality already exists because it was included in DNU #70 issued earlier this year. However, for currency competition to be real, there canno...