Driving the news: President Javier Milei announced a sweeping reform of the Central Bank's charter (BCRA) via a national broadcast, framing it as an end to 'the fraud of counterfeiting money to finance high politics.' The bills were formally submitted to the Chamber of Deputies on Friday.
What's in the package: - Restrict the BCRA's mandate to 'preserving the value of the currency' - Prohibit the Central Bank from financing the Treasury - Require a two-thirds supermajority in both chambers to remove the bank's president - Roll back kirchnerist changes made in 2012
Milei also unveiled a 'fiscal shackle' — an Argentine adaptation of the U.S. government shutdown mechanism — that would freeze non-essential spending whenever a fiscal deficit risk emerges. Capital markets and insurance deregulation round out the package.
The votes: Chamber Speaker Martín Menem convened allied bloc leaders for Tuesday. Pro, Innovación Federal, and parts of Provincias Unidas are signaling support. Pro economist Hernán Lacunza called the BCRA reform 'very reasonable.' UCR legislator Lisandro Nieri said Milei is 'moving in the right direction.' Peronism announced outright opposition.
What's next: Menem is targeting a late-August floor vote. Joint sessions of the Budget and Finance committees could begin as early as Wednesday.
The bottom line: Monetary independence is the institutional bedrock of any serious disinflation program. Locking the BCRA's printing press in a constitutional cage — and making it harder to fire its chief for political reasons — is exactly the kind of structural reform that separates durable stabilization from the next peso crisis. The fiscal shackle adds a second line of defense. Peronism's reflexive opposition only underscores whose interests the old arrangement served.