Economic conditions & trends

Argentina: Pres. Milei to Veto Pension Reform Bill

Published AUG 24 2024

Story

Above: Pres. Javier Milei waves as he arrives at the 136th Expo Rural at La Rural Exhibition and Conference Centre on July 28, 2024, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Image credit: Tomas Cuesta/Stringer/Getty Images News via Getty Images

The Facts

Argentine Pres. Javier Milei said on Friday he would veto a pension reform bill estimated to increase pension spending by between 0.44% and 1.2% of the gross domestic product, with his office reasserting his pledge to "maintain a fiscal surplus at all costs."
Reuters
Buenos Aires Times
www.ft.com
The bill, passed by the Senate in a 61-8 vote, includes cost-of-living adjustments for pension benefits. The minimum monthly pension is nearly $233, while the cost of the basket of goods and services used to measure inflation costs more than $300 a month.
Bloomberg.com
ap
According to the presidential office of Argentina, the pensions reform is an "irresponsible, illegal and unconstitutional bill" approved in an "act of demagogic populism" that disturbs the country's fiscal balance.
www.ft.com
ap
A possible presidential veto can be overridden if a two-thirds majority supports the bill in both houses of Congress — where the ruling La Libertad Avanza coalition controls less than 15% of the seats.
Al Jazeera
Bloomberg.com
www.ft.com
Earlier this year, Milei signed a decree changing the pensions formula to link them to inflation and to give a one-off 12.5% increase in April to compensate for the 71.3% cumulative inflation since December 2023.
Buenos Aires Herald
Buenos Aires Times
The approval of the pension reform bill comes after the lower house Chamber of Deputies rejected a proposed spending increase of 100B pesos ($103.5M) for intelligence services.
Buenos Aires Times

Sources Split

LEFT

CENTER

RIGHT

ESTAB
CRIT

CENTER

PRO
ESTAB

The Spin

Left narrative

The brutal austerity program of the self-declared anarcho-capitalist Javier Milei has so far increased poverty to 55% and further aggravated annual inflation. And yet he continues to attack pensioners as if destroying their purchasing power was a silver bullet for solving Argentina's economic issues.

Peoples Dispatch

EL PAÍS English

Right narrative

Milei took over a country in the depths of unprecedented economic and political turmoil, and he's already turning it around in six months. His market-based reforms are saving Argentina, and a veto on this new pension formula is the only way to protect the real purchasing power of pensions.

The Telegraph