Javier Milei Sworn In As Argentina's President, Warns Of Economic Shock In Maiden Speech

"I swear to God and country... to carry out with loyalty and patriotism the position of president of the Argentine nation," he said as he took the oath of office.

President of Argentina Javier Milei gives a speech after his Inauguration Ceremony at National Congress on December 10.

Source : Getty

New Delhi: Libertarian economist Javier Milei was sworn in as Argentina's president on Sunday. Milei registered a landslide victory following people's fury over the country's economic crisis, reported news agency AFP. 

"I swear to God and country... to carry out with loyalty and patriotism the position of president of the Argentine nation," he said as he took the oath of office, before outgoing President Alberto Fernandez placed the presidential sash over his shoulders.

In his maiden speech, Milei warned there was no alternative to a fiscal "shock", saying his predecessors had left the country without funds and on a path to hyperinflation.

The outsider libertarian, a former TV pundit, has ridden a wave of voter anger at triple-digit inflation, tumbling foreign currency reserves and rising poverty amid the South American country's worst economic crisis in over two decades, reported AFP.

"We need a fiscal adjustment that falls on the state and not on the private sector," he said. "There is no money."

 "We are going to do everything we can to avoid such a catastrophe," he added.

He said key steps would include a fiscal adjustment equivalent to 5% of the country's GDP through cuts that he said would fall on "the state and not the private sector."

The ceremony's guests included Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and a US delegation.

Right-wing former Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro also attended, as well as Uruguay's conservative leader Luis Lacalle Pou. Chile's leftist President Gabriel Boric was also present.

"He is the last hope we have left," said 72-year-old doctor Marcelo Altamira, who slammed "useless and inept" governments for years of boom-bust economic crises. The outgoing Peronist government, he said, "had destroyed the country," reported Reuters.

Milei is expected to lay out a more detailed economic plan on Tuesday or Wednesday, sources from his team told Reuters.

Argentina's net foreign currency reserves are estimated at $10 billion in the red, annual inflation is 143% and rising, a recession is around the corner and capital controls skew the exchange rate.