Javier Milei warned that things will get worse before they get better. Now Argentinians are experiencing this.
The owner of a popular wine bar in Buenos Aires has seen the price of beef rise by 73 percent in the past two weeks, while the price of zucchini he puts in salads has increased by 140 percent. An Uber driver paid 60 percent more to fill his tank. And one dad said he spent twice as much on his toddler's nappies than last month.
In Argentina, a country synonymous with galloping inflation, people are used to paying more for almost everything. But life quickly becomes more painful under the rule of the country's new president.
When Javier Milei was elected president on November 19, the country was already suffering from the world's third-highest inflation rate, with prices rising 160 percent compared to the previous year.
But prices have risen at such a dizzying pace since Mr. Milei took office on December 10, sending Argentina's currency plummeting in value, that many people in this South American nation of 46 million are wondering how their businesses or homes can survive for so long. He is making new calculations about whether he can stay. The country is already enduring a deeper economic crisis.
"We've been worried all the time since Milei won," said Fernando González Galli, 36, a high school philosophy teacher in Buenos Aires.
Mr. Galli is trying to make cuts without making the lives of his two daughters, aged 6 years and 18 months, worse, including switching to a cheaper brand of diapers and racing to spend Argentine pesos before their value worsens. “As soon as I get my paycheck, I'm going to go buy everything I can,” he said.
