Argentina’s month-over-month inflation rate fell to 15.3 percent in February, marking a 40 percent decrease from the high of 25.5 percent in December, when President Javier Milei took office. It marks a success for the libertarian economist who has promised a “shock therapy” treatment for the beleaguered state.

More detailed inflation statistics are expected to be released on Thursday, according to Reuters. 

Mr. Milei has spent his tenure — since taking office on December 10 — trying to reverse his country’s historic inflation and rates of poverty. He also has visited Israel to pronounce his country’s support for the Jewish state in the war against Hamas, even as other South American leaders call for Israel to cease its “genocide” against Palestinian Arabs. He halted Argentina’s joining of BRICS — an alliance of Brazil, Russia, India, Communist China, and South Africa. 

In February, he traveled to the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland, where he said he came to sing a “message of optimism” for the futures of both Argentina and America. 

“None of the varieties of socialism can work,” he said to the audience, warning: “don’t let socialism advance, don’t endorse regulation, don’t endorse the idea of market failure,” and “don’t let the siren calls of social justice fool you.”

In early February, the Argentine government posted the first monthly budget surplus in over a decade. The nearly $600 million surplus came as the monthly inflation rate even fell in January to 20.6 percent from 25.5 percent. 

The surplus and falling monthly inflation rate are seen as potential vindications of Mr. Milei’s attempt at cost-cutting and privatization, which is coming into focus as the Argentine Congress considers a package of economic reforms. 

On February 2, the chamber of deputies passed a framework agreement for Mr. Milei’s reforms aimed at privatizing state companies, deregulating the economy, and making changes to the nation’s criminal and environmental laws. The legislature is still debating the fine text of the package.

“They understood the historical context and chose to end the privileges of the caste and the corporate republic, in favor of the people, who have been impoverished and are hungry,” Mr. Milei said after the lower chamber passed the preliminary motion on his reform package. 

The effort has stalled in the last month, however, with little progress being made. Mr. Milei said March 1 that he would take executive action to reduce the size and scope of the federal government. “We are going to change the country for good … with or without the support of political leaders, with all the legal resources of the executive,” Mr. Milei told reporters.