Over the past two weeks, a wine bar owner in Buenos Aires has seen the price of beef rise by 73 percent, while the prices of zucchini he puts in salads have risen by 140 percent. An Uber driver paid 60 percent more to fill her car’s tank. One father said he spent double what he spent on diapers for his child last month.
In Argentina, a country synonymous with accelerating inflation, people are accustomed to paying more for almost everything. But under the country’s new president, life quickly became more painful.
When Javier Miley was elected president on November 19, the country was already experiencing the third-highest inflation rate in the world, with prices rising 160 percent from the previous year.
But since Miley took office on December 10 and rapidly devalued the Argentine currency, prices have risen at such a dizzying pace that many in the South American nation of 46 million have begun to make new calculations about how their businesses will survive. Or their families have not survived yet. A deeper economic crisis that the country is already experiencing.
“Since Miley won, we have been worried all the time,” said Fernando Gonzalez Galli, 36, a philosophy teacher at a high school in Buenos Aires.
Mr Galli is trying to cut back on his expenses without making life worse for his daughters, aged 6 years and 18 months, including switching to a cheaper brand of diapers and racing to spend the Argentine peso before its value deteriorates further. “Once I get my salary, I will go buy whatever I can,” he said.
Nahuel Carbajo, 37, owner of Naranjo Bar, a trendy wine bar in Buenos Aires, said that like most Argentines, he was accustomed to regular price increases, but last week went well beyond what he was accustomed to.
Since Miley’s win, the price of his premium carbajo steak has risen 73%, to 14,580 pesos, or roughly $18 per kilogram, or about 2.2 pounds; The price of a five-kilogram box of zucchini rose to 15,600 pesos from 6,500; Avocados cost 51 percent more than at the beginning of this month.
“There’s no way for salaries or people’s incomes to adjust that quickly,” Carbajo said.
Mr. Miley’s spokesman, Manuel Adorni, said accelerating inflation was the inevitable result of reforming Argentina’s distorted economy.
“We are left with many unresolved problems and issues that we must begin to address,” he said. “We will inevitably experience months of high inflation.”
Mr. Miley has warned Argentines that his plans to shrink the government and reshape the economy will hurt at first. “I would rather tell you the uncomfortable truth than the comfortable lie,” he said in his inauguration speech, adding last week that he wanted to end the country’s “model of decline.”
Argentina’s economy has been suffering from a crisis for years, with chronic inflation, increasing poverty, and a decline in the value of the currency. The economic turmoil has paved the way for the presidency for Mr. Milley, a political outsider who spent years as an economist and television analyst attacking what he described as corrupt politicians who destroyed the economy, often for personal gain.
During the campaign, he pledged to take a chainsaw to public spending and regulations, and even used an actual chainsaw at rallies.
After Mr. Miley’s victory, price increases began to accelerate in anticipation of his new policies.
The previous leftist government used complex currency controls, consumer subsidies and other measures to inflate the official value of the peso and keep several key prices artificially low, including gas, transportation and electricity.
Mr. Miley vowed to undo it all, and wasted little time.
Two days after taking office, Mr. Milley began cutting government spending, including consumer subsidies. It also devalued the peso by 54%, bringing the government exchange rate much closer to the market valuation of the peso.
Economists said such measures are necessary to fix Argentina’s long-standing financial problems. But it also brought short-term pain in the form of faster inflation. Some analysts questioned the lack of adequate safety nets for the poorest Argentines.
In November, prices rose by 13 percent compared to October, according to government data. Analysts expect prices to rise by 25% to 30% this month. Between now and February, some economists expect an 80% jump, according to Santiago Manoukian, chief economist at Ecolatina, an economic consulting firm.
This forecast is due in part to rising gas prices, which increased 60 percent from December 7 to 13 and are having a ripple effect on the economy.
The depreciation of the currency made imported products such as coffee, electronic appliances, and gas immediately more expensive because they were priced in US dollars. A monthly Netflix subscription in Argentina jumped 60% to 6,676 pesos, or $8.30, the day after the devaluation, for example. Some local producers, including farmers and ranchers, have also pushed for price increases to match their rising costs.
With chronically high inflation, labor unions often negotiate large raises in an attempt to keep up, but these wage increases are quickly eaten up by sharp price rises. Informal workers, a list that includes nannies and street vendors, who make up nearly half the economy, do not receive such increases.
Mr. Miley on Wednesday launched his next big steps to reshape the government and the economy with an emergency decree that dramatically reduces the state’s role in the economy and eliminates a raft of regulations.
This measure prohibits the state from regulating the real estate rental market and setting limits on the fees that banks and health insurance companies can charge customers. Changing labor laws to make it easier to fire workers while placing restrictions on strikes; It turns state companies into corporations so that they can be privatized.
Many legal analysts immediately questioned the constitutionality of the decree, saying Mr. Miley was trying to subvert Congress.
After the speech, people across Buenos Aires, like Jesúsa Orfilia Peralta, 73, a retiree, took to the streets banging on pots to show their displeasure.
She expressed concern that rising prices would make proper health care too expensive for her and her husband. Despite her severe spinal problems, she said she did not hesitate to go outside using a walker and vent her anger in public. “Where will I be?” She said.
Mr Miley has sought to discourage protests by threatening to cancel welfare schemes and fine anyone who takes part in demonstrations blocking roads. Such policies have been widely criticized by human rights groups as a restriction of the right to peaceful protest.
Right now, most Argentines are trying to figure out how to make ends meet in what often seems like a complicated course in the economy and a frantic race to buy before prices rise again.
“I always say that we are at university, and every day we sit for a difficult exam, every five minutes,” said Roberto Nicolas Ormeno, owner of El Gauchito, a small shop in downtown Buenos Aires.
Ormeno said he was scouring the market looking for ingredients and changing suppliers almost every week, either because they raised prices too much or offered lower quality products.
He’s trying to avoid passing on too many price increases to customers, though he’s not sure how much longer he can afford it. “I see my repeat customers buying a dozen empanadas instead of two dozen,” he said.
Marisol del Valle Cardozo, who has a 3-year-old daughter, has cut back on her expenses in an attempt to make ends meet, switching to cheaper brands and going out less. “We don’t run the air conditioning as much,” she said. “We have reduced our plans on weekends from four times a month to just once.”
Ms. Cardoso, who works for the police department outside Buenos Aires, said she got a raise this year, but it’s not really enough. She also drives for Uber, but said the price increases have not kept pace with rising fuel prices.
Despite the challenges, Ms. Cardoso said she remains a supporter of Miley and hopes his policies will succeed.
“We were living in an illusion,” she said, referring to gas prices before the recent rise. “If these adjustments are necessary to ultimately achieve success, they are worth it.”
Jack Nickas He contributed reporting from Rio de Janeiro.