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Milei to Announce Central Bank Reform in National Address
🇦🇷 Argentina /Economy & Trade

Milei to Announce Central Bank Reform in National Address

From La Nación · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Sources not specified New plan
  • Argentine President Javier Milei will announce a reform of the Central Bank's Organic Charter, aiming to restore its primary mission of defending the currency's value.
  • The reform seeks to reverse changes made in 2012 that expanded the bank's objectives and, according to Milei, facilitated financing the Treasury and fueling inflation.
  • The initiative, developed with Economy Minister Luis Caputo and other officials, intends to institutionally shield the Central Bank and limit its use as a source of government funding.

President Javier Milei is set to announce a significant overhaul of Argentina's Central Bank, fundamentally altering its mission and institutional framework. The reform, which Milei will unveil in a national broadcast, aims to revert the bank's objectives to their pre-2012 state, prioritizing the defense of the peso's value above all else.

It is an abomination.

— Javier MileiReferring to Article 3 of the current Central Bank Organic Charter.

Milei has been a vocal critic of the 2012 reform, spearheaded by then-Central Bank president Mercedes Marcó del Pont. He argues that this change broadened the bank's mandate beyond monetary stability to include employment and economic development, thereby weakening its independence and enabling excessive money printing that fueled inflation. He specifically targets Article 3 of the current charter, which he calls "abominable," and intends to remove what he deems "the garbage" introduced by Marcó del Pont.

The crude Marcó del Pont assigned five objectives to an economic policy instrument. If you read the current Organic Charter, you can issue money for any reason. That's how we were, they left us with hyperinflation planted.

— Javier MileiExplaining his view on the consequences of the 2012 reform.

The proposed changes seek to "institutionally shield" the Central Bank, preventing it from being used as a tool to finance the national treasury. This move aligns with Milei's broader economic agenda, which emphasizes fiscal discipline and a reduction in state intervention. The initiative has been discussed with key economic figures, including Economy Minister Luis Caputo, Central Bank President Santiago Bausili, and Minister of Deregulation Federico Sturzenegger, and is also reflected in the second review of Argentina's program with the International Monetary Fund.

Its primary and fundamental mission was to preserve the value of the currency.

— Javier MileiDescribing the Central Bank's mission before the 2012 reform.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by La Nación in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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