By Nicolás Misculin
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – The government of Argentine President Javier Milei was seeking to salvage his wide-ranging economic reform package on Wednesday after Congress delivered a major blow a day earlier, casting doubt over its future and triggering a fall in financial markets.
Lower house lawmakers on Tuesday rejected several crucial proposals in the bill, sending it back to a legislative committee for a rethink.
But a spokesperson for the government told Reuters on Wednesday that it appeared unlikely the bill, which had already been significantly reworked by lawmakers, would make it back to the lower house.
The government was weighing whether break it up into separate bills, ruling party lawmaker Oscar Zago said on Wednesday in an interview on local radio station Urbana.
Zago, who leads the ruling party’s minority bloc in the lower house, said a non-binding national referendum could also be held to drum up support for the bill, which includes provisions to allow for the privatization of state entities, the reworking of hundreds of regulations, and a reduction in state subsidies.
Milei, who has accused opposition lawmakers of “betrayal” for voting against some of the key proposals, argues reforms are needed to rescue Argentina from its worst economic crisis in decades, with inflation running at over 200%.
Argentina’s stock market fell more than 5% on Wednesday. Bonds slid an average 1%, and the peso currency weakened more than 3%.
(Reporting by Nicolas Misculin; Writing by Brendan O’Boyle; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
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