Argentina striving "to avoid hyperinflation," says Milei

Argentine President Javier Milei on Friday said his administration is striving "to avoid hyperinflation" through "hyper-orthodox belt-tightening with the loosening of the exchange market and restructuring of the central bank."

"We are making an enormous effort, 60 percent (of the belt-tightening) falls on the politicians" and "40 percent on the private sector," and private sector measures are "transitory" in nature, Milei was quoted as saying by the official Telam news agency.

Milei made the remarks in a live broadcast on social media, during which he raffled off among his followers his last salary as a national deputy (some 2,119,432 pesos or US$2,678) before assuming the presidency on Dec. 10.

Inflation in Argentina was running at 12.8 percent in November, for a cumulative rate of 148.2 percent in the first 11 months of the year, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses.