The Buenos Aires Stock Exchange opened up 20% on Tuesday, the day after a public holiday which followed the resounding victory on Sunday of the ultraliberal and anti-system Javier Milei in the presidential election against the outgoing Minister of the Economy Sergio Massa. This jump is driven by the surge in shares of the public oil company YPF (34%), one of the companies that the president-elect announced he wanted to privatize as part of a vast state reform. On Monday, YPF shares traded on Wall Street finished up 40%.
The 53-year-old economist largely won the second round with 55.95% of the votes against 44.04% for his rival, according to partial official results. The outsider had promised to free the “parasitic political caste”, the Peronist (heirs of ex-president Juan Peron) and liberal governments succeeding one another for 20 years in the country plunged into a deep economic crisis.
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Argentina is experiencing chronic inflation of 143% over one year, while four out of ten Argentines live below the poverty line. The country is also experiencing pathological debt and a currency, the peso, which is in decline. The ultra-liberal with controversial positions has promised to abandon the national currency in favor of the US dollar and to close the central bank – which he accuses of printing money rampantly to finance excessive government spending – in order to attempt to put an end to inflation. During his campaign, he promised to slash state spending and eliminate around ten ministries, among other controversial proposals. Javier Milei will take office on December 10.