Argentina's Milei will need time to scrap peso if he wins, advisers say
By Anna-Catherine Brigida
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) — Javier Milei, Argentina's radical presidential front-runner, will need time to carry out his campaign pledges of scrapping the peso currency and cutting taxes on grains should he win the election, advisers told Reuters, adding that he could avoid congressional hurdles by using executive decrees.
Ramiro Marra, part of Milei's inner circle and his party's candidate for mayor of Buenos Aires city, said Milei — who pulled off a shock win in a primary election this month — would dollarize the economy within two years and aim to remove taxes on the huge farm sector if he was elected.
He added, however, that voters for Milei, a self-described libertarian and political outsider who made a name for himself as a 'shock jock' television pundit, should be realistic that his proposals would take time.
«It has to be understood that administration proposals do not happen by magic,» Marra told Reuters in an interview at the office of his investment firm Bull Market Brokers in Buenos Aires, adding that whoever wins the Oct. 22 election — or more likely a November run-off — faced «hard months» ahead.
Juan Napoli, also running for a Senate seat with Milei's party, agreed time would be needed to lay the groundwork for reforms.
Marra said dollarization would take from nine months to two years to make a reality, while he declined to give a timeframe on getting rid of taxes on grain exports, the country's main economic driver, though said doing so was «our aim».
«We believe that we must take our foot off the agricultural sector,» he said, citing «inefficiencies from the creation of direct and indirect taxes» on the sector. He cited Chile's more free-market model as an inspiration.
Milei's
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