WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday approved $4.7 billion for Argentina, supporting the new administration of President Javier Milei as he enacts massive cost-cutting to bring the country’s ailing economy back on track.

The disbursement is intended “to support the new authorities’ strong policy efforts to restore macroeconomic stability,” the IMF said in a statement.

Milei, a libertarian and self-described “anarcho-capitalist,” took office in December vowing to slash spending and end decades of economic crisis in South America’s third-largest economy, where annual inflation stands at over 200 percent.

IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva praised the government’s “bold actions to restore macroeconomic stability and address long-standing impediments to growth.”

Milei, a 53-year-old outsider, won a resounding election victory on a wave of fury over the country’s decades of economic crises marked by debt, rampant money printing, inflation and fiscal deficit.

But his cost-cutting measures have also prompted backlash and protests.

Milei began his term in office by devaluing the peso by more than 50 percent, cutting state subsidies for fuel and transport, reducing the number of ministries by half, and scrapping hundreds of rules so as to deregulate the economy.

The government’s “initial actions averted a balance of payments crisis, although the path to stabilization will be challenging,” Georgieva said.

IMF sees Japan committed to flexible exchange rate

The IMF announcement came the same day that Argentina’s lower house of Congress began what is expected to be a marathon debate on Milei’s mega-bill to reform the economy, politics and even some aspects of private life – touching on everything from cultural issues to the penal code to divorce.

Milei does not hold a majority in Congress, and moderate opposition lawmakers have warned they will seek further changes to the bill, in particular on the touchy issue of the delegation of special powers to the executive in an economic emergency, and on the scope and extent of privatizations.