Barely a year into the administration of President Javier Milei, Argentina recorded its first budget surplus in January 2025.

Argentina is having a budget surplus for the first time in 14 years amid Mr Milei’s massive cut down on the cost of governance.

On Friday, Luis Caputo, Argentina’s economy minister, announced that the budget surplus amounted to 0.3 per cent of the country’s GDP over a decade after it was last recorded in 2010.

“In 2024, the Luis Caputo, Argentina’s economy minister, (NPS) recorded a primary surplus of 1.8 per cent of GDP and a financial surplus of 0.3 per cent of GDP,” Mr Caputo tweeted on Friday.

He added, “The fiscal result published today should be understood as a milestone in our history. It is the result of extraordinary leadership by our president @JMilei, coupled with a stabilisation programme that has surprised the world.”

Mr Milei, who assumed office in December 2023, described the budget surplus as one campaign promise fulfilled.

“The promises have been kept. The ‘zero deficit’ is a reality. Long live freedom, goddammit,” Mr Milei wrote on Instagram.

Mr Milei has slashed government spending, cutting energy and transportation subsidies and sacking 5,000 government employees recruited in 2023, just before he assumed office.