News of argentina

President Javier Milei meets with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva in Washington DC.

IMF to send team to Argentina after ‘excellent’ Milei meeting

Today 09:21 IMF Managing Director Georgieva meets President Javier Milei in Washington and highlights "tremendous progress" of Argentina’s economy. An IMF team will travel to Buenos Aires next week to accelerate talks over a new programme.

DEATH OF ALBERTO NISMAN

Milei government remembers Nisman, describes death as ‘murder’

Yesterday 09:08 President’s Office reaffirmed its “commitment to seek justice for the victims of AMIA” bombing in statement marking 10th anniversary of late prosecutor Alberto Nisman’s death.

POLITICS & CONGRESS

Government renews push for 'Ficha Limpia' anti-graft bill

18-01-2025 13:40 President Javier Milei sends so-called 'Clean Record' bill to Congress; If passed, the bill would block former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner from seeking office in 2025 midterms.

Javier Milei, Argentina’s president, speaks at the Atreju convention in Rome, Italy, on Saturday, December 14, 2024.

ECONOMIC POLICY

Milei touts 'promises kept' after rare budget surplus

18-01-2025 10:21 Economy Minister Luis Caputo confirms Argentina's budget surplus, which amounted to 0.3% of GDP, was the first since 2010.

Editorial

Brave new world or tempest?

18-01-2025 06:49 Slaying the inflationary dragon is both the cornerstone of Milei’s economic policy and the key to electoral success, but the sequence between lower inflation and electoral triumph is not so linear.

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

The 86th victim

18-01-2025 06:41 Ten years later, Argentine society is still owed an explanation of a bafflingly mysterious death.

by Michael Soltys

Analysing Argentina

Latin America ducks and covers for Trump – except Milei

18-01-2025 06:37 With expected good access to the new White House, it will be up to Milei and his team to distinguish personal ideology from national interest and act accordingly.

by Marcelo J. García

POLITICS – ANALYSIS

Milei's Marxist culture wars

18-01-2025 06:33 The rise of characters such as Donald Trump in the US, and Milei here in Argentina, is directly tied to their level of political incorrectness and they’ve become equally savage in pushing culturally as far as they can in the other direction.

by Agustino Fontevecchia

Donald Trump, left, with Javier Milei at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on November 14, 2024.

US-ARGENTINA RELATIONS

Trump and Milei: An ideological match, but can they work together?

18-01-2025 06:32 The ideological romance between the presidents of Argentina and the United States has already matured. But will it ripen?

At Barrio Padre Mugica in Retiro, Buenos Aires, food training is serving as a tool of social transformation. Chef Germán Sitz (Niño Gordo) and mixologist Sebastián Atienza (Tres Monos) have created ‘La Escuelita,’ a space where youngsters in low-income neighbourhoods can learn the basics of ingredients, cooking, cocktails and wine.

SOCIETY

‘La Escuelita’: Where hope goes to school

18-01-2025 05:14 At Barrio Padre Mugica in Retiro, Buenos Aires, food training is serving as a tool of social transformation. Chef Germán Sitz (Niño Gordo) and mixologist Sebastián Atienza (Tres Monos) have created ‘La Escuelita,’ a space where youngsters in low-income neighbourhoods can learn the basics of ingredients, cooking, cocktails and wine.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters in Washington.

ECONOMIC OUTLOOK

IMF projects strong economic growth for Milei's Argentina in 2025

17-01-2025 18:59 International Monetary Fund estimates that Argentina’s economy contracted by 2.8% last year, but projects five percent growth in the coming two years.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

Argentina posts fiscal surplus after Milei’s budget cuts

17-01-2025 18:49 President Javier Milei made good on his promise to deliver a fiscal surplus in his first year, achieving a feat not seen in over a decade in Argentina’s deficit-prone economy.

THE WEEK IN REIVEW

Stories that caught our eye: January 10 to 17

17-01-2025 16:57 A selection of the stories that caught our eye over the last seven days in Argentina.

Estadio José María Minella in Mar del Plata.

Football in Argentina

Summer football has forsaken its spiritual home

17-01-2025 11:54 (Disclaimer: The following column is full of unabated nostalgia and old-man-yells-at-cloud aimless ranting. When asked for an explanation, the author professed that it is very hot in Buenos Aires right now and that has him in a foul mood. For actual up-to-date information, please consult elsewhere in today's newspaper)

by Dan Edwards

CENTRAL BANK MANOUEVRES

Argentina takes steps to dollarise and holds key rate

17-01-2025 11:49 Argentina’s Central Bank said payment intermediaries will have to enable debit card transactions in US currency by February 28, marking a key step in President Javier Milei’s pledge to dollarise the economy.

ECONOMIC OUTLOOK

World Bank forecasts 5% growth for Argentina in 2025

17-01-2025 09:52 After two years of recession, President Javier Milei’s government will see approximately five percent in GDP this year, followed by a further 4.7 percent in 2026, predicts World Bank.

President Javier Milei delivers a speech at the United Nations General Assembly.

WAR IN MIDDLE EAST

Milei 'eagerly' awaiting release of Israeli-Argentine hostages

17-01-2025 09:28 President Milei says he hopes US president-elect Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are "successful" in securing the release of hostages.

President Javier Milei visits San Juan Province Governor Marcelo Orrego.

TRUMP'S INAUGURATION

Milei to join far-right leaders, tech moguls at Trump's inauguration

16-01-2025 19:23 Along with the president's usual travelling crew, one unexpected Argentine will also be in attendance: San Juan Province Governor Marcelo Orrego.

A demonstrator raises placards during a protest calling for action to secure the release of Israelis held hostage in Gaza since October 2023, in front of the Israeli defence ministry in Tel Aviv on January 14, 2025.

Release of Hostages

Who are the seven Argentine hostages awaiting release from Hamas?

16-01-2025 17:32 Shiri Silberman Bibas and her sons Ariel and Kfir are the most high-profile hostages who could be released in the first phase of the ceasefire deal.

Firefighters battle a forest fire in the mountains of Epuyén, in Patagonia, Chubut Province, on January 16, 2025.

ENVIRONMENT

Hundreds of homes evacuated as Patagonia fires spread

16-01-2025 14:49 Forest fires in Patagonia force evacuation of 200 families, destroying some 2,000 hectares of terrain in the town of Epuyén.

Soy is loaded onto a ship along the Paraná River at a processing facility in Rosario on March 26, 2024.

Dredging row

Government accused of skewing auction to upgrade soy river

16-01-2025 11:40 President Javier Milei faces scrutiny for unfairly favouring Belgium firm Jan de Nul NV in 30-year tender to dredge Paraná river.

Security Minister Patricia Bullrich stages a press conference announcing the arrest of a 24-year-old in General Roca, Río Negro Province, on suspicion of organising terrorist attacks across Argentina.

CRIME & SECURITY

Bullrich announces arrest of ‘terrorist linked to Islamic State’

16-01-2025 09:51 Nine-month investigation ends with arrest of 24-year-old in General Roca; Argentina’s security minister claims that “terrorist represented a concrete threat to national security" and was planning major attacks across nation.

The site of the former clandestine detention and torture site known as Olimpo.

HUMAN RIGHTS

Judge orders Milei government to protect dictatorship torture sites

15-01-2025 19:52 President Milei’s nominee for Supreme Court, Federal Judge Ariel Lijo, orders Human Rights Secretariat to safeguard sites and staff of 'Olimpo,' 'Club Atlético,' 'Automotores Orletti' and 'Virrey Cevallos' after request by City legislator Victoria Montenegro.

Karina Milei and Martín Menem at Mar del Plata with Bernardo Lemma, the La Libertad Avanza party leader in Las Flores, Buenos Aires Province.

POLITICS

Karina Milei fancies midterms clash against Cristina Fernández de Kirchner

15-01-2025 15:29 Rumour mill cranks into overdrive as talk of midterms showdown between president’s sister and former head of state in Buenos Aires Province ramps up; La Libertad Avanza Senator Sebastián Pareja and Lower House Speaker Martín Menem among those pushing for a Karina candidacy.

View of an unfinished bioterium at the Institute of Physiology, Molecular Biology, and Neurosciences (IFIBYNE / UBA-CONICET), at Ciudad Universitaria in Buenos Aires on September 16, 2024.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

Public spending slashed 26.8% last year

15-01-2025 14:01 Transfers to the provinces were the hardest hit by the austerity with a75.1% annual drop, explained by reductions in the transfers for both current (minus 68.6%) and capital (minus 94.3%) spending.

Disappearance of Loan Danilo Peña

Pope voices concern over missing seven-year-old

15-01-2025 13:58 Pontiff expresses fears over disappearance of Loan Danilo Peña, the young boy who went missing in Corrientes seven months ago, noting hypothesis that child was “taken away to extract his organs for transplants.”

Pope Francis is acknowledged by faithfuls as he holds the weekly general audience in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican on January 15, 2025.

MEMORY LANE WITH FRANCIS

Francis recounts 'mischievous' youth in autobiography

15-01-2025 12:33 Argentine pontiff reminisces on a childhood spent eating pizza, walking the streets and getting up to no good in his Buenos Aires neighbourhood.

ECONOMY – ANALYSIS

Milei lowers peso crawling peg to 1% after inflation stabilises

14-01-2025 16:43 Monthly inflation continues to run near a four-year low, opening the door for first change to currency policy in more than a year.

Shoppers peruse prices at a supermarket in Buenos Aires.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

INDEC reveals Argentina's 2024 inflation rate: 117.8%

14-01-2025 16:38 Annual inflation nosedives in boost for Milei; Prices rose 2.7% last month, reports INDEC; Bureau’s data shows inflation fell almost 94 points year-on-year.

People pass by used clothes for barter or sale on a sidewalk in Villa Fiorito, Lomas de Zamora on November 13, 2023 where a pedestrian bridge is decorated with portraits of late football star Diego Maradona.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

Poverty affected 28.1% of portenos in Q3 2024

14-01-2025 14:40 Nearly 900,000 porteños were considered poor in the third quarter of 2024, according to City Hall statistics bureau.

International Monetary Fund

IMF publishes grim evaluation of Argentina’s US$44-billion deal

12-01-2025 08:55 Ex-post evaluation paints a grim picture of Argentina’s latest IMF programme that began in March 2022. Staff detailed reckless policy decisions by the government of former president Alberto Fernández that derailed the programme and economy in the run-up to the 2023 presidential election.

BILATERAL SPAT

Maduro brands Milei a 'Nazi, Zionist and social sadist'

11-01-2025 10:00 Nicolás Maduro branded his Argentine counterpart Javier Milei a "Nazi, Zionist and social sadist" on Friday as he was sworn-in as Venezuela's leader for a third term.

Editorial

Flotsam and jetsam not always adrift

11-01-2025 06:39 While so much could happen in the country and the world in the next nine months, everything now points to the midterms going Milei’s way, even if it will be a relative victory.

Analysing Argentina

Main Street and Milei Street

11-01-2025 06:26 any process of economic transformation, like the one President Javier Milei is trying to implement, will have winners and losers.

by Marcelo J. García

Protesters demonstrate in support of Venezuela's opposition in Buenos Aires on January 9, 2024.

The Week in Review

Stories that caught our eye: January 3 to 10

10-01-2025 16:18 A selection of stories that caught our eye over the last seven days in Argentina.

Argentina's President Javier Milei speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Buenos Aires on December 4, 2024.

SPENDING CUTS

Scientists warn Milei wants to 'deepen' cuts, slash state research

10-01-2025 14:51 Scientists and academics warn the Milei administration wants to cut research funding across social and environmental sciences.

Hidrovía Paraná-Paraguay

Paraná-Paraguay waterway a focal point for global security policy

10-01-2025 13:44 Ongoing tussle involving major dredging companies seeking to participate in Milei government's tender. Hidrovía Paraná-Paraguay is a naval highway for the trafficking of illicit drugs to the rest of the world.

President Javier Milei, Deregulation and State Transformation Minister Federico Sturzenegger.

Analysis

Midterm elections set limit on Milei’s search for spending cuts

10-01-2025 13:26 Spending cuts in 2024 reached some five percent of Argentina's GDP. Is there room to repeat this feat?

DEATH OF ALBERTO NISMAN

A decade on, prosecutors conclude Alberto Nisman was killed

10-01-2025 11:22 Eight days before the 10th anniversary of his death, a new report concludes that late special prosecutor Alberto Nisman was killed for investigating alleged cover-up of the perpetrators of AMIA terrorist bombing in 1994.

Brenda Agüero appears in court at the beginning of the 2025 trial into the 2022 deaths of five newborn babies at a Córdoba neonatal hospital in the provincial capital.

Córdoba newborn deaths

Nurse denies killings as trial into death of five newborns begins

10-01-2025 09:50 Prime suspect is 30-year-old nurse Brenda Agüero, accused of infanticide; Ex-provincial health minister, former hospital directors and healthcare professionals also facing trial.

POLLING & SURVEYS

Argentines are increasingly positive about the Milei economy

10-01-2025 08:54 Argentines are turning more optimistic about the future of their nation’s beleaguered economy.

Estudiantes embark on spending spree with US billionaire Foster Gillett’s support.

Football in Argentina

Estudiantes embark on spending spree with US billionaire’s support

09-01-2025 21:23 Estudiantes have arrived to shake up the hornets’ nest with a series of audacious transfer bids, bankrolled by billionaire US national Foster Gillett, in a financial offensive which has dragged the conflict around private ownership of clubs back onto the agenda.

by Dan Edwards

POLITICS

Macri tells Milei he’s ready to team up for midterms

09-01-2025 21:13 Former president uses social media to respond to head of state’s flirting and tells him PRO is “ready to form a work team with whoever you offer.”

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Is appreciation appreciated?

09-01-2025 19:37 Currency appreciation has been a central factor in giving Milei a dream spring – let us see if that same factor impelling several million Argentines to vacation abroad this summer sends the balance of payments wheel spinning in the opposite direction.

by Michael Soltys

The Central Bank of Argentina in Buenos Aires.

ECONOMIC FORECASTS

Central Bank poll predicts 2025 inflation rate of 25.9%

09-01-2025 14:22 Projections for last year’s inflation rate dips to 117.8% in Central Bank’s market expectations survey.

A supermarket in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

City inflation accelerated slightly to 3.3% last month

09-01-2025 13:50 Consumer prices rose 3.3% last month due to increases in services; City Hall data shows that inflation over the last 12 months totalled 136.7% in 2024.

WHERE'S THE GOLD?

Argentina refuses to disclose location of Central Bank’s gold

09-01-2025 13:13 Lawyers representing Argentina in a New York court have refused to reveal the location of the Central Bank’s (BCRA) gold reserves.

Javier Milei is trying to guarantee that his free-market vision for business withstands any future change in government.

BONDS & MARKETS

Milei celebrates as Argentina pays US$4.3B to bondholders

09-01-2025 13:07 "Debts must be paid," declares President Javier Milei as Treasury makes first due bond repayments of 2025, amounting to US$4.341 billion in principal and interest.

Speakers, Conference, European, Atreju, Summit, Forum

DEBT REPAYMENTS

Official says country made payments on sovereign debt

09-01-2025 11:38 Finance Secretary Pablo Quirno said on a post on X Thursday morning that Argentina's government has made debt payments to international bondholders.

Opposition Juntos por el Cambio leader Patricia Bullrich announces at a press conference that she will support libertarian presidential candidate Javier Milei in the November 19 run-off.

INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL

Bullrich warns U-20 football team ‘could get kidnapped’ in Venezuela

08-01-2025 17:41 Security Minister Patricia Bullrich calls on CONMEBOL to strip hosts Venezuela of the tournament and says Argentina won’t send under-20 football team due to “kidnapping” fears.

State-owned firms Aerolíneas Argentinas and YPF.

POLITICS & MEDIA

Despite ‘no pauta’ rule, Milei finds other ways to reward or punish the media

08-01-2025 15:56 The Milei administration cut state advertising as part of its austerity plan, but quietly, other state bodies and firms continue to distribute cash without transparency.

Pedestrians walk along the Southbank of the River Thames, with the Elizabeth Tower, commonly known by the name of the clock's bell "Big Ben", at the Palace of Westminster, home to the Houses of Parliament, in the background, in central London, at sunset, on January 6, 2025.

VISITING BRITAIN

UK extends travel entry scheme to non-EU countries

08-01-2025 10:18 Visitors from 48 non-European countries, including Argentina, now need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) to enter the UK.

MUSIC

New generation of musicians make their mark

08-01-2025 08:08 From the square to the stadium – a new wave of urban music is making its mark as young artists give a voice to a generation raised online.

A combine harvester cuts through a field of soybean plants at a drought-affected farm in San José de la Esquina, Argentina in April 2023.

AGRICULTURE & ECONOMY

La Niña effects surprise Argentine farmers as dryness kicks in

07-01-2025 16:55 La Niña wreaked havoc on Argentina’s farms just two years ago. Now, a long bout of dry weather is emerging again.

COURTS

Unprecedented infanticide trial into newborn deaths begins

07-01-2025 11:10 Unprecedented trial sees 11 defendants facing trial by jury for the deaths of five infants at Córdoba neonatal hospital in 2022; Unlike similar cases of attacks on newborn babies reported in the United States, England and Mexico where only nurses are on trial, the case extends to 10 officials.

by María Ester Romero

Gustavo Nievas and Brenda Agüero, pictured in court,

COURTS

Lawyer for nurse accused of killing newborns predicts she will be cleared

07-01-2025 10:21 Slamming prosecutors, lawyer for nurse accused of killing five newborn babies predicts his client will be acquitted of all charges by the end of the trial.

Tributes to late British singer Liam Payne are left outside the hotel where he died in Buenos Aires.

DEATH OF LIAM PAYNE

Second suspect in custody over late singer Liam Payne’s death

07-01-2025 08:39 Last week, 24-year-old waiter Brian Paiz was arrested by City police officers at his home in Buenos Aires Province. On Monday, Ezequiel Pereyra, a hotel employee of the CasaSur hotel, turned himself in to the courts, becoming the second detainee.

EU-MERCOSUR TRADE DEAL

EU-Mercosur free-trade deal 'not concluded,' says Macron

06-01-2025 16:38 French President Emmanuel Macron declares that the controversial free-trade agreement between the European Union and the Mercosur bloc is "not concluded."

The Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

Argentina's country risk rating falls to lowest level since 2018

06-01-2025 15:21 Argentina’s country risk rating falls to lowest level since August 2018.

Hospital Materno Neonatal Ministro Dr. Ramón Carillo in Córdoba.

NEONATAL DEATHS IN CÓRDOBA

Trial into death of five newborns at Córdoba hospital gets underway

06-01-2025 09:05 Eleven defendants in dock for deaths of five children at the Hospital Materno Neonatal in Córdoba; Former nurse Brenda Agüero, responsible for vaccinating the newborns, stands accused of poisoning babies with potassium.

Health & Society

Teen pregnancy can be a reproducer of poverty

06-01-2025 07:10 Becoming a mother during adolescence not only disrupts educational paths – it plays a key role in perpetuating poverty both for the young mother and the nation as a whole. Education and teenage pregnancy are also closely linked — those who leave school are more likely to fall pregnant, and those who become pregnant, often drop out.

by Sabrina Chemen

Fabiola Yáñez at the New Year's Eve dinner that sparked the scandal.

AMID SCANDAL

Yáñez gives up state security detail amid NYE dinner furore

05-01-2025 10:26 Former first lady Fabiola Yáñez renounces state security detail that was strengthened in wake of her gender violence allegations against ex-president Alberto Fernández; Milei and Bullrich had criticised her use of proection officers, revealing it had cost state at least US$147,000 since last August.

REPURCHASE AGREEMENT

Milei scores win with US$1-billion repo from five top banks

05-01-2025 09:47 Milei administration announces US$1-billion repurchase agreement with five international lenders that will help replenish foreign reserves at its Central Bank.

A homeless family, pictured on the streets of Buenos Aires.

SOCIETY

Expert reports say poverty rate has fallen to 36.8%

04-01-2025 15:11 Experts warn of structural poverty risks as two reports tracking indices say the number of Argentines considered poor fell significantly in the last quarter of 2024.

Javier Milei and Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.

OPPOSITION LEADER IN BUENOS AIRES

Milei meets Venezuelan opposition leader González Urrutia

04-01-2025 13:00 Opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia meets with President Javier Milei at the Casa Rosada amid ongoing crisis in Venezuela.

HONOUR FOR LIONEL

Messi awarded US Presidential Medal of Freedom by Joe Biden

04-01-2025 12:44 National team skipper Lionel Messi has been granted the highest US civilian honour in the United States.

Analysing Argentina

May you live in happy times, Mr President

04-01-2025 07:54 Much of this success hinges on the Pax at the exchange rate market. Prices in Argentina dance to the tune of one price: that of the US dollar.

by Marcelo J. García

POLITICS – ANALYSIS

Is Javier Milei an outlier, or just another normal politician?

04-01-2025 06:35 My read is that Milei is not so different as we’ve led ourselves to believe. While he is eccentric and has a bizarre relationship with his sister and his “four-legged children,” ultimately he will converge toward more or less the same avenues of behaviour as his predecessors. His perfect armour will begin to exhibit chinks at some time, and his infallibility will become exactly the opposite. It’s a matter of time.

by Agustino Fontevecchia

JIMMY CARTER (1924-2024)

A good man who lived a good life

04-01-2025 06:26 Before Jimmy Carter, the US State Department would only protect its own citizens if they fell foul of a foreign dictator. But under him, thousands of lives were saved by US diplomacy.

by Robert Cox

Editorial

The year ahead

04-01-2025 06:24 An electoral year already anticipated well in advance offers no clearer horizons now that it has started.