President Javier Milei on Thursday predicted he would win re-election next year as he defended his economic reforms and pitched Argentina’s investment opportunities to US business leaders in Washington.
Speaking at the US Chamber of Commerce, Milei said projects worth around US$66 billion had entered the pipeline via his flagship RIGI incentive scheme for major investors, adding that he expected the figure to eventually exceed US$100 billion during his Presidency.
He recognised, however, that underdeveloped capital markets and limited credit access continue to constrain Argentina’s economic growth.
The latest available government figures show that 24 projects worth a total of about US$56.2 billion in planned investment have been approved under the RIGI programme scheme, according to fact-checking organisation Chequeado.
The RIGI programme offers unprecedented tax and regulatory incentives to attract large-scale investment, particularly in sectors such as energy and mining.
“This will permit us to manage the transition until Argentina can generate its own capital markets,” Milei argued.
The La Libertad Avanza leader told an audience of business leaders and investors that said he is “confident” voters will back him in next year’s presidential election.
“Argentina is still going through the end of the old model and the beginning of the new Argentina,” said Milei, who claimed that “70 percent of Argentines have decided that they do not want to go backwards.”
“Argentines make short-term decisions, but once confronted with reality, I have no doubt that they will choose the path of progress. Societies do not commit suicide.
“We are confident that we will reaffirm this course at the ballot box next year and that Argentina will once again follow the path to greatness,” he added.
‘The challenge’
Milei’s speech – titled “The Argentine Case: The Challenge of Economic Growth after Decades of Populism” – came two days after the International Monetary Fund lowered its 2026 growth projections for Argentina’s economy from 3.5 percent to 2.1 percent, while projecting year-end inflation of 32.5 percent.
Official data underlines the challenges facing Argentina. Fixed investment fell by 11.1 percent year-on-year at the end of the second quarter of 2026, according to the INDEC national statistics bureau. Investment in machinery and equipment declined 15.2 percent over the same period, even as the overall economy expanded by two percent.
“The real wealth is generated by businessmen,” Milei said, arguing that private enterprise and capital were the main engines of economic growth.
Addressing concerns about artificial intelligence and its impact on employment, Milei described the process as “creative destruction” and repeated his pledge not to regulate the technology. “We aren’t going to regulate AI, we are going to allow it free!” he said.
The President also predicted that Argentina’s country risk premium would fall below 100 points next year if it was measured solely by his government’s economic policies, arguing that investors had yet to fully appreciate the scale of the changes underway.
“In 30 months, we are repairing the damage of 100 years, and that certainly qualifies as a miracle,” he declared to applause from the audience.
Milei also defended the impact of his reforms on the labour market, arguing that opening up the economy was changing the composition of the labour market rather than simply destroying jobs.
Rising unemployment is one of the biggest concerns facing voters, recent polling shows. Registered employment declined by about 631,000 posts year-on-year as of the second quarter of 2026, while unregistered employment increased by 781,600 over the same period.
Milei also highlighted what he described as a fiscal adjustment equivalent to 15 percentage points of GDP, achieved in six months, and claimed that his government is “managing to tame inflation,” which is currently running at an annual 32 percent but has stabilised at a monthly reading of around two percent.
The President delivered the address after receiving the US Chamber of Commerce’s Global Champion of Free Enterprise award. The chamber’s president and chief executive, Suzanne P. Clark, used her remarks to praise his efforts to improve Argentina’s investment climate and promote free-market policies as a model for other countries.
Argentine officials attending the event included Presidential Chief-of-Staff Karina Milei, Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno and Argentina’s ambassador to the United States, Alec Oxenford.
The event was sponsored by the US-Argentina Business Council, with support from Kimberly-Clark, AES, Rio Tinto and Argentina Potash.
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