Weekly Report - 26 April 2018 (WR-18-16)

The government led by President Mauricio Macri has once again agreed to adjust its economic stabilisation plans to ease the social discontent they have been producing. After coming under mounting public and political pressure, the government has announced that it will modify its schedule for the elimination of the generous energy subsidies introduced under successive Kirchnerista administrations (2003-2015). But while Macri has said that the move is designed to alleviate the financial pressure that the sharp increase in utility tariffs resulting from the gradual removal of subsidies has placed on the Argentine people, he was clear that his government will not abandon its plans to eliminate all energy subsidies, convinced that this is in the country’s long-term economic benefit.