LAST YEAR’S INFLATION 31.5%
Inflation was confirmed as having risen for the fourth month running Tuesday when the INDEC national statistics bureau posted 2.8 percent for December, the second-highest figure of the year. Total inflation for 2025 was thus 31.5 percent – the lowest figure for a calendar year since the 24.8 percent of 2017. Transport (four percent) and Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (3.4 percent), Communications (3.3 percent), Restaurants and hotels (3.2 percent) and the key item of Food and beverages (3.1 percent) were the leading culprits while beef (almost eight percent) along with fuels alone accounted for a third of the inflation. Restaurants and hotels and Housing etc. were also leading items in the figures for 2025 with 42.2 percent and 41.6 percent respectively although behind Education (52.3 percent). Core inflation (excluding regulated and seasonal prices) was also above average at three percent in December, a worrying sign. Economy Minister Luis Caputo described the annual figure as “an extraordinary achievement bearing in mind a context of readjusting relative prices, the implementation of a currency float and a sharp contraction in the demand for money as the result of a ferocious political attack.” Just before last weekend City Hall also registered accelerating inflation with a slightly lower December figure of 2.7 percent for a 2025 total of 31.8 percent.
EU-MERCOSUR DEAL APPROVED
On the cusp of last weekend the European Union in the form of the European Council approved its free trade agreement with Mercosur after a quarter-century of negotiations although parliamentary ratification and EU member approval remain pending. After some doubts President Javier Milei ended up heading to the Paraguayan capital of Asunción to sign the agreement today before his next destination of the World Economic Forum in Davos, departing tomorrow night. The agreement stands to eliminate tariffs and boost exports within an integrated market of 715 million consumers. But the deal continues to run into French, Irish and Polish resistance with Paris arguing that a treaty first drafted in the past is outdated while placing French agricultural sectors at risk. Approval was clinched thanks to last-minute concessions inducing Italy to change its stance and support the proposal, including safeguard mechanisms such as a review if the volume of South American imports rises five percent or more or if prices fall below their average of the last three years.
DUTY-FREE MOBILES
As from last Thursday import duties on mobile telephones were eliminated by virtue of Decree 333/2025 published the previous day, leading to expectations of lower market prices “promoting digital inclusion and technological development” in the words of the decree although the electronics assembly plants in Tierra del Fuego will be directly affected. Until last Thursday the tariff had been 9.5 percent.
MACRI CUTS LOOSE
Last weekend ex-president Mauricio Macri and Juliana Awada announced the end of their 15-year marriage, a decision taken before Christmas although they opted to spend the holidays and see in the New Year together. The relationship had reportedly been in crisis since mid-2024. It was the third such bond for both with Macri, 66, previously married to Ivonne Bordeu (the mother of his three adult children) and Isabel Menditeguy while Awada, 51, had been wed to Gustavo Capello, followed by an extended relationship with Bruno Laurent Barbier, the father of her elder daughter, Valentina – her younger daughter Antonia (now 14) is her only child with Macri. The couple were married in late 2010 when Macri was City mayor while Awada went on to become a high-profile first lady during his presidential term (2015-2019). But last week they went their separate ways with Macri travelling to Europe and Awada vacationing in Punta del Este with her family.
MILEI IN ENGLISH
President Javier Milei last Monday launched new social network accounts in English with the aim of projecting his ideas to an international audience but the account, protagonised by a representation of himself as a cartoon superhero, was briefly suspended for violating the norms of X platform although later revived. Milei’s cartoon alter ego is “General Ancap,” a compression of “anarcho-capitalist,” used since his 2023 presidential campaign to symbolise libertarian ideology. The video intersperses the superhero flying over the Obelisk with images of Milei himself making speeches, attending rallies and featuring on the cover pages of international media. Attributing the suspension to opposition denunciations, Milei protested it as “censorship” and the video was restored on Monday evening.
VENEZUELA ON HOLD
While awaiting the release of more Argentines in Venezuela (following Monday’s release of Argentine-Israeli citizen Yacoov Harari, 72, after being held for 15 months in the El Rodeo I prison), President Javier Milei last Wednesday received in the Casa Rosada two Argentines freed from captivity elsewhere – the brothers Ariel and David Cuneo (whose family moved to Israel in 1986), held hostage in the Gaza Strip following the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, 2023 and released two Octobers later. Last weekend the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva government confirmed that Brazil would no longer be representing Argentina in Venezuela with Giorgia Meloni’s Italy poised to replace them in taking care of the vacated Argentine Embassy. Lula and Milei have been at loggerheads over United States President Donald Trump’s intervention in Venezuela earlier this month.
CORN HARVEST BULLISH
This year’s maize harvest will hit a record production level of 62 million tons, according to an estimate by the Rosario Grain Exchange, 24 percent up on last year and smashing the previous 2023-24 record of 52.5 million tons by 9.5 million tons even if the recent lack of rainfall plus the high summer temperatures reduced the expectations by up to 20 percent. Over eight million hectares have been allocated to the harvest.
FLYBONDI PUNISHED
The ANAC (Administración Nacional de Aviación Civil) aviation authority has sanctioned the low cost airline Flybondi for cancelling flights without prior notice, affecting over 22,000 passengers. The company responded that it had begun to normalise flights via the incorporation of four new Airbus A 320 aircraft, regretting the inconveniences, although only last Tuesday 24 of the 47 flights programmed for that day were suspended. The scale of the sanction, which might take the form of fines or a temporary suspension of authorisation to operate, has yet to be determined by administrative proceedings. The Flybondi communiqué further reported that so far this summer the airline has transported more than 566,000 passengers in over 3,400 flights “in a context of elevated demand.”
PAINTING IDENTIFICATION
The painting Portrait of a Lady, robbed by the Nazis during World War II and located last August in a Mar del Plata home, has been identified by art experts as being the work of the painter Giacomo Antonio Melchiorre Ceruti (1698-1767), aka ‘Il Pitocchetto,’ when originally attributed to the famous Italian Baroque painter Giuseppe Ghislandi but still possibly worth 250,000 euros.
TSUNAMI IN MINIATURE
Last Monday afternoon the Atlantic resort of Mar Chiquita was hit by a mini-tsunami of up to five metres, smashing one man to death against the rocks, injuring 35 other people (including a heart attack suffered from the shock) and causing panic along the coast. The fatal victim was fishing at the time. A further 19 injuries were reported at other seaside points. Meanwhile there were storms in the Mar del Plata area. Lifeguards ordered a total evacuation of all beaches in the Santa Clara del Mar district as a precautionary measure.
PATAGONIAN FOREST FIRES DYING DOWN
The fires ravaging the province of Chubut for 10 days are finally 85 percent under control thanks to the efforts of 660 fire-fighters, the provincial government reported on Thursday, after destroying almost 12,000 hectares of virgin forest. Chubut Governor Ignacio Torres took issue with the various conspiracy theories in circulation to explain the disaster.
POWER CUT
A massive power cut in Buenos Aires City and suburbs hit 800,000 users in Buenos Aires City and some northern suburbs as from 2.30m last Wednesday afternoon with the heat index topping 36 degrees but service was progressively restored over the following hour. Traffic lights out of action snarled transport, shops were obliged to close down and households in general suffered. The cause of the power cut was the failure of four high-tension lines linked to the Morón substation, operated by Edenor.
ROME’S NEW MAN IN BA
The new Italian Ambassador Fabrizio Nicoletti, representing the government of Giorgia Meloni, a key international ally of Milei, formally presented his credentials to President Javier Milei last Wednesday. On Tuesday Nicoletti had met up with Economy Minister Luis Caputo, who had highlighted “the importance of the agreement between Mercosur and the European Union for increasing exports and the level of investments between Argentina and Italy.”
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