Argentina’s highly controlled economy is starting to be restructured by the ultra-liberal president Javier Milei’s new administration.

In a televised speech on Wednesday, Milei declared, “We are initiating the economic deregulation that Argentina so desperately needs,” unveiling a decree that included thirty measures in total. Several legislation governing the labor and real estate sectors were among them.

Furthermore, all state-owned businesses will be converted to public limited corporations in preparation for their eventual privatization.

Buenos Aires, the country’s capital, saw thousands of protesters go to the streets against the new government’s liberal economic policies. After the administration threatened severe repercussions in the event that street blockades occurred, the protest stayed mainly peaceful.An extreme economic catastrophe is currently engulfing Argentina. In the formerly wealthy nation, 40% of people live below the poverty line, and the rate of inflation is over 160 percent.

The second-biggest economy in South America is beset by issues such as an oversized public sector, low industrial productivity, and a substantial shadow economy that robs the government of tax income.

At the same time that Argentina’s mountain of public debt rises, the value of the country’s currency, the peso, continues to decline against the US dollar.