President Javier Milei explained the inflation figure at the AmCham Summit 2026

In a context of economic transition and after the release of the latest INDEC data, which marked inflation of 3.4%, President Javier Milei decided to face the scenario without hesitation and with a direct message to the core of the inflation problem. He did this during his presentation to businessmen at the AmCham Summit 2026, where he not only recognized the negative impact of the data, but also explained the structural causes behind the increase and defended the economic direction

adopted by his management.

Far from dodging the figure - which represented an increase compared to 2.9% in February - the president made a difference with traditional politics: “Politicians usually pretend to be insane or talk about anything else when they receive bad information. We would have a lot of good things to talk about today, but since I am Milei and I hate the traditional way of doing things, and since I hate inflation, and since I didn't like the fact and it disgusts me, I'm going to

talk about inflation.”

From that base, the President raised the need to understand the phenomenon: “One of the important things with this is to explain and be clear about what is happening. It's the first step in finding a solution. In that sense, we have to understand why 3.4%, why inflation has been rising,” and he assured that the Government is clear about the process and is confident in a future slowdown: “I will also explain to you why we are convinced that inflation will go down going forward

.”

In his analysis, Milei identified extraordinary factors that conditioned inflationary dynamics. He recalled that the economy faced “two shocks of extraordinary characteristics” in the middle of last year and stressed that, despite this, inflation of 1.5% had been reached in May, “after Manuel made that extraordinary choice in CABA.” However, he denounced a political offensive against his economic program: “From that moment on, a fierce attack by politics began, at the heart of the model. Congress passed more than 40 laws trying to break the fiscal balance. They didn't succeed.”

Along the same lines, he stressed the magnitude of the financial tensions: “Argentina faced a run for the equivalent of 50% of M2. At any time in history, Argentina would have been blown up in the air. Not only did it not fly, but we received strong support at the polls. We got 17% out of Kirchnerism and turned the election around in PBA”, interpreting that result as a clear sign of social support for the change of course: “People don't want to go back to the past”

.

The President also provided technical indicators to support his expectation of a slowdown: “If you look at wholesale inflation, which is getting ahead, it is around 10%. We have to finish accommodating relative prices and converge there,” and he called for avoiding hasty answers: “What you have to do is be patient. There is no need to despair. When you get desperate, you make bad decisions. We are not going against economic theory and empirical evidence

.”

In a more technical section, he explained that the current phenomenon responds to a previous monetary shock: “What happened in the second half of last year was a monstrous drop in demand for money... by the equivalent of 41 billion dollars.” He explained that, adjusting for adjustments, “the monetary base measured in dollars fell to levels of 20 billion”, that is, “half the average of the previous government with inflation that traveled at 1.5% per

day.”

In addition, he noted that the liabilities of the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic reached close to 30 billion dollars, generating financial tensions: “The monetary liabilities of the BCRA are the working capital of the economy. As demand for domestic assets falls, it causes the price of bonds to fall, the interest rate to rise, and the country's risk to rise. It reached levels of 1,000 basis points.”

As he explained, this process impacted the activity: “There was a strong increase in the demand for working capital... the activity that had been expanding stopped in its tracks. He made the economy end at 4.2% growth, when we could have finished in 7,” and he attributed part of this dynamic to political factors: “The speculative attack and the attempt of politics to generate a coup d'etat were not free

.”

In turn, he identified conjunctural factors in the March data: “March is a month with a very negative seasonality... it impacted education, which has to do with the war... transport, and because of a seasonal issue the impact of meat”.

With this framework, he relativised the nature of the increase: “Monetary policy did not change. So, this isn't strictly inflation. The fact is that the price level jumped due to changes in relative prices, but long-term inflation converges on international inflation”, assuring that “the balance we are going to has not

changed”.

Finally, Milei forcefully reaffirmed the direction of his administration: “Economic theory and empirical evidence say that what we have to do is maintain fiscal balance, continue with the chainsaw”, and remarked: “The chainsaw doesn't stop”. In that sense, he anticipated more adjustment of spending to reduce taxes: “We are going to continue to cut public spending to continue to lower taxes because taxes are

theft.”

The president also insisted on deepening economic liberalization: “We are not going to give up one iota in continuing to deregulate... opening up the economy... it generates more economic growth”, and he made clear the political objective of his administration: “We didn't come to eternalize in power, we came to write the best page in Argentine history.”

In closing, he appealed to a moral dimension of the program: “Our politics is just... we are not going to stray from Judeo-Christian values... we are not going to listen to the sirens singing”, and he concluded with a warning and a promise: “We are going to write the best page in Argentine history, whether they accompany us or not... if they don't accompany us, we will return home... but if it works out well, Argentina will have taken a step to be great again.”