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Argentina Senate Passes Milei’s 2026 Budget, Setting Stage for Reform Push

The approval provides the political footing the government seeks to launch a broad reform drive in extraordinary sessions early in 2026.

Overview

  • Lawmakers backed the Presupuesto 2026 by 46–25 with 1 abstention, passing disputed articles that expand debt-restructuring tools and remove minimum funding floors for education, science and defense.
  • The budget projects total spending of 148 trillion pesos, 5% GDP growth, 10.1% annual inflation, a December 2026 exchange rate of 1,423 pesos per dollar, and a 1.2% primary surplus.
  • The government intends to convene extraordinary sessions in late January and February, targeting a Senate debate on labor reform around February 10 and taking a new Penal Code to the Chamber of Deputies.
  • Provincial leaders voice concern over tax provisions tied to income and other reductions that could shrink coparticipation revenue, signaling potential demands to change key chapters.
  • Unions, environmental groups and human-rights organizations prepare resistance to proposals that would modify the Glacier Law and stiffen criminal rules, including treating roadblocks as offenses and lowering the age of criminal responsibility.