BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentina’s liberal president Javier Millay President Trump is set to sign a long-delayed deal with state governors in a bid to solidify broad support for his reforms and bolster his minority government in the Legislature.
Millay is due to sign the agreement with at least 17 governors across South America around midnight to counter market doubts about Argentina’s ability to weather the worst economic crisis in its history, which has seen inflation soar to nearly 300 percent and pushed half the population into poverty.
After an initial strong market rally since Milley took office in December, bonds and the peso currency have come under new pressure as the economy slumps and political tensions rise at home and abroad.
Milley’s Road to Freedom party does not have a majority in Congress and no governor, so it must negotiate with other political forces to get its policies implemented.
The prime minister has close ties with leading conservatives, but five governors from the centre-left Peronist opposition party are expected to skip the meeting.
Presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni said in a post on X that the agreement includes non-negotiable budget balance, cuts in public spending, tax cuts, pension and labor reforms, efforts to develop natural resources and “opening up to international trade.”
Argentina’s Congress at the end of June passed two major bills backed by Milley’s government aimed at revitalizing the economy, cutting public spending and attracting international investors, but markets fell last week.
On Monday, the peso fell about 2 percent in the country’s unofficial parallel market, hitting a record low of 1,450 pesos per U.S. dollar.
The agreement, known as the “May Accords,” was originally scheduled to be signed on May 25 but was postponed, in honor of the date of Argentina’s May Revolution against Spain. It is expected to be signed in the northern province of Tucuman, the symbolic site where Argentina declared independence in 1816.
(Reporting by Nicholas Misculin, Sarah Morland and Bill Berkrott Editing by
