LatinNews Daily - 11 December 2024

*Argentina’s President Javier Milei has pledged to reduce taxes by 90% next year and work towards lifting the ‘cepo’, Argentina’s strict currency exchange controls. Speaking in a speech to mark his first year in office, Milei stated that his government would present a structural tax reform that would lower the amount of national taxes by 90% and “give back to the provinces the tax autonomy they should never have lost”. He said this would promote “a real fiscal competition among the Argentine provinces to see who will attract the most investment”. Milei also noted that Argentina’s parallel exchange rate was converging towards the official rate. He said this brought the country closer to “the definitive exit of the cepo, an aberration that should never have happened and that, with us, is going to end next year and forever”. Milei also refloated plans to close the central bank (BCRA), stating that, in order to advance in this process and “put an end to inflation forever in Argentina”, the government had announced a “currency competition scheme” which would allow Argentines to choose which currency to use in their daily transactions, except for the payment of taxes, which will still need to be made in Argentine pesos “for the time being”.