Prices are accelerating sharply in Argentina, following the 100% devaluation announced by the government of new president Javier Milei.
Food prices are increasing between 30 and 100%, as is the case with fuel.
In this context, Economy Minister Luis Caputo acknowledged that "hard months are coming" and defended the measures he presented on Tuesday.
These include the depreciation of the peso from 350 to 800 to the dollar, the elimination of transport and energy subsidies and the end of public works.
In a TV interview he said: "we are avoiding a catastrophe, and what we are doing is the only and best thing that can be done".
He also reiterated that the inheritance this administration received from the Peronist government "was the worst in history".
Talking to TN news channel, Caputo also confirmed that the automatic updating of pensions will be eliminated.
And he revealed that the income tax for wage earners will be reinstated.
The elimination of this tax was approved by Congress just a few weeks ago, and among the lawmakers who voted to scrap it was current president Milei.
Caputo also announced that subsidies will begin to be lifted as of 1 January.
In any case, he anticipated that there will be some kind of subsidy of 100 and 200 kilowatts for low-income users, and that savings will be rewarded.
He also acknowledged that December's inflation could be even higher than November's, which reached almost 13%, the highest since 1990, when Argentina was on the verge of hyperinflation.
In addition, yesterday more criticism of Milei's first economic measures came to light.
The governor of the province of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof, recalled that the President "had said that the adjustment was not going to fall on the people".
But the adjustment "will affect workers, pensioners, companies" isntead he said.
There were also criticisms of Caputo's package coming from the CGT, the country's main labor federation.
At a press conference, union leader Héctor Daer regretted that the measures "do not adjust to the so-called caste, as promised in the campaign".
They "fall back on the people" and "dynamite the purchasing power of wages", so the CGT - he promised - "will not stand idly by".
