Argentina’s libertarian president Javier Milei is facing the first major test of his plan to fix the country’s troubled economy, after his moves to control a run on the peso sparked a market backlash.
The government sets the peso’s official exchange rate at about 960 to the dollar, but on parallel exchange markets — both legal and illegal — the Argentine currency hit a record low of almost 1,500 per greenback this month.
The gap between the rates is seen as a key indicator of confidence in the government, and can fuel inflation.
Last Saturday Milei unveiled a plan to stabilise the peso: the central bank will tighten rules on money printing to shrink Argentina’s money supply, and start using its scarce foreign currency reserves to buy pesos on the parallel market.
“If I turn off all the money printing taps, the problem ends,” Milei told broadcaster LN+. “There’s no…
