Argentina Approaches Presidential Elections With Triple-Digit Inflation

Argentina is preparing for presidential elections scheduled for October 22. The first round of elections, which will choose the country’s new leader, comes at a particularly sensitive moment for this South American country that is struggling with another economic crisis.

Competing for the presidency are Javier Miley, an ultra-liberal and anti-system economist from the La Libertad Avanza party (Freedom Goes Forward), Patricia Bullrich from the Juntos por el Cambio party (Together for Change, a formation that can be defined as right-wing), Sergio Massa from the Unión por la Patria (Union for the Fatherland, he is the current Minister of Economy and the manifestation of the Progressive Party), Juan Schiaretti from the coalition Hacemos por Nuestro País (Let’s do it for our Country), and Miriam Bregman from the Frente de Izquierda y de Trabajadores – Unidad (United Left Front of Workers).

Buenos Aires hosted the second debate of the candidates on October 9, during which, according to the Italian news agency ANSA, the usually hot-blooded Javier Miley was the most moderate and calm. He was the most successful candidate in the primaries in August.

Miley, leading in public opinion polls, strangely softened his tone: his direct attack on the current minister, Massa, who “brought the country to the brink of bankruptcy,” was followed by less radical and extreme arguments than usual. At the same time, a representative of the Union for the Fatherland called for the creation of a “government of national unity,” and Bullrich, who needs to close the gap with other candidates, sharply criticized corruption in the current government and against the “anti-caste” Miley, whom she accuses of having numerous representatives of the “caste” in his ranks.

Meanwhile, according to Reuters, Argentina’s Central Bank is due to discuss the possibility of further raising the interest rate, which currently stands at 118%. To appreciate the severity of the crisis engulfing Latin America’s third-largest economy, it suffice to consider that annual inflation in August was 124%, the highest in 32 years.