President Javier Milei’s aggressive cost-cutting measures have significantly cut down Argentina’s expenses, ending the nation’s budget deficit for the first time in 123 years, as he marked his one-year-old presidency.

Mr Milei, who became president December 10, 2023, inherited an economy battered by inflation so chronic that supermarkets adjusted the price of goods every day, but his chain-saw austerity approach has placed the economy on the path to stability.

From over 200 per cent inflation rate —the highest in the world throughout 2023 —Mr Milei drove the figures down drastically. As of October 2024 in Argentina, inflation stood at 2.7 per cent compared to 25 per cent in December 2023.

“The deficit was the root of all our evils—without it, there’s no debt, no emission, no inflation,” Mr Milei said in a broadcast on Tuesday to mark his first year in office. “Today, we have a sustained fiscal surplus, free of default, for the first time in 123 years.”

“This historic achievement came from the greatest adjustment in history and reducing monetary emission to zero,” boasted the Argentine president. “A year ago, a degenerate printed 13 per cent of GDP to win an election, fuelling inflation. Today, monetary emission is a thing of the past.”

Barely a week after he was sworn in in 2023, Mr Milei sold two national aircraft. He halved the number of official vehicles and drivers in a power move that saved Argentina $3 billion annually, demonstrating his commitment to reducing government spending and hyperinflation.

The president in April sacked his associate, labour minister Omar Yasín, for increasing the pay of ministers and other senior cabinet officials when the country was grappling with its worst economic crisis.

Mr Milei’s remarkable feat of ending over a century-old deficit within 365 days was no small feat, earning him accolades from tech mogul Elon Musk, who congratulated him on X Tuesday morning.