President Javier Milei stood by his economic program on Monday, and blamed inflation and declining activity in recent months on what he called a political strategy by the opposition, the media and some private companies.
In a speech during the annual gala of think tank Fundación Libertad, he also backed Chief of Staff Manuel Adorni, who is being investigated for alleged illicit enrichment, highlighting he won the legislative race in Buenos Aires City last May.
“The worst has passed, despite a violent attack from politicians that failed to bring down our economic program, which citizens have backed in the elections,” Milei said after receiving an award.
The President used the speech, which lasted over an hour, to address many of the criticisms his government receives.
“Numbers are showing that we are the best government in history, even if the left doesn’t like it,” he assured, adding that the opposition “take a bad number and generalize it.”
Employment and salaries
Responding to concerns about the recent increase in unemployment, Milei said: “It is a lie that job posts are being destroyed”.
The president stressed that around 400,000 new jobs were created since he came to power in December, 2023. While he admitted most of them were informal or non-registered jobs, he stated his labor reform was created with the aim of helping those posts be “absorbed” by the formal economy.
As for the criticisms about the drop in wages, he stated that “the salaries that are actually dropping” are those of public workers.
He also highlighted that the public worker who is “doing worse” is himself, as he’s “the only one who didn’t get a raise”.
“I am the lowest-paid president in the Americas,” he said.
Inflation and political strategies
The president acknowledged that the 33% inflation accumulated in the past year “is a horrible number,” but assured his administration “will defeat it.”
He also added the number, while bad, marks a contrast with the previous government’s interannual inflation of 211% in 2023.
Milei said that although he lowered inflation, it still peaked in 2025 due to a “massive sabotage” of his economic program by opposition politicians, businesspeople, and the media during the legislative election campaign.
The president said that the achievements of his government have not only led his administration to “win arguments” with the opposition, but also “to start beating them in the ballot boxes,” and that this made them turn “violent.”
Economic numbers
The president also blamed some private companies for using speculative strategies to affect economic growth, in the lead up to the elections.
“Economic activity came to a screeching halt; the economy stopped growing, and wages stopped rising,” Milei affirmed. “If people have felt frustrated over the past six months, it’s no coincidence — it’s the result of the destruction of working capital. Today, all of that is being rebuilt; credit has started to grow again.”
He highlighted that, while the economy “seems to have posted its worst figures” in March, “it began showing signs of recovery” in April.
“No one would have imagined that companies would deplete their working capital to engage in speculative attacks. However, it happened,” he said.
He also reaffirmed he would continue on the same economic path: “We are not going to deviate one bit from our orthodoxy. We are not going to stop looking at the empirical evidence.”
