Nearly 30,000 companies have closed in Argentina during Milei's government

Argentina has witnessed the closure of over 30,000 companies since President Javier Milei assumed office in late 2023, a figure described as the worst decline in the initial 30 months of any government. Data from the think tank Fundar indicates that by May, 30,633 businesses had shut down, with 2,371 closing in May alone, averaging 76 per day.

This significant number of closures has reduced the total number of companies in Argentina to approximately 481,724, the lowest in nearly two decades. Experts link this trend directly to Milei's economic policies, characterized by what some economists call "neoliberalism of indiscriminate economic opening."

The trade sector has been the most severely affected, with 8,408 businesses ceasing operations. Other significantly impacted sectors include transportation and storage (6,733 closures), real estate services (4,098), and manufacturing (4,020).

Economists like Hernán Bergstein point to several contributing factors. The liberalization of imports, often of low-cost and questionable quality, creates unfair competition for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Simultaneously, a decline in real wages, despite still-high inflation, has reduced consumer demand. This, coupled with a government policy of reducing public spending, has led to fewer companies supplying goods and services to the state. Bergstein also noted a "transfer" phenomenon where struggling companies pass financial difficulties to their suppliers, creating a cascading effect that disrupts the payment chain across various sectors.