In a decisive step towards financial health, the Government aims to dismantle the inflationary architecture inherited from Kirchnerism. President Javier Milei has defined the priorities of his parliamentary agenda with a clear objective: to restore the Central Bank to its purpose of existence, through the restoration of the Organic Charter.
This is not just a technical reform; it is a declaration of war against the uncontrolled monetary issuance that plunged the country into misery while populism used the BCRA as its personal savings account. The battle will be fought in modifying its fundamental functions to preserve the value of the currency and eradicate forever the cancer of inflation
This counteroffensive directly targets the 2012 reform, executed during the presidency of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, when the BCRA was transformed into an appendage of the Treasury. The president was blunt about this in his recent presentation before the Faro Foundation, where he stated: "What can we expect from someone from a Kirchnerist Central Bank? The brute Marcó del Pont assigned five objectives to an economic policy instrument".
The Kirchnerist reform, driven by the then-president of the entity, Mercedes Marcó del Pont, attacked the heart of Article 3 of the Organic Charter. What was once the "primary and fundamental function" of "preserving the value of the currency" was replaced by a vague multiple mandate that sought to "promote monetary stability, financial stability, employment, and economic development with social equity".
Under this disguise of "social justice," the State forced the Central Bank to neglect the fight against rising prices to finance political projects, a decision that, as Milei denounced, ended up destroying the purchasing power of Argentines. In this regard, the President recalled that, for not defending the currency, the peso "had 13 zeros taken off".
The trap of issuance; Article 20.
Beyond the slogans, the 2012 reform hid a perverse mechanism in Article 20 regarding temporary advances. This tool allowed the BCRA to finance the Treasury with unprecedented monetary issuance.
