The Economy Ministry announced on Saturday a series of measures to be implemented in the week after the primaries, including the drafting of a zero deficit budget for 2024.

The ministry said this would be achieved mainly by cutting tax exemptions for large companies. It will present a budget bill in Congress next September 15 with an addendum attached detailing the cost of said exemptions, something that was already included in the 2023 budget. According to this document, those benefits are “equivalent to approximately 4.5% of the GDP.”

“This reduction is crucial in achieving  the proposed fiscal goal of achieving a zero primary deficit by 2024.”

According to a press release, over the next week the ministry will summon state secretaries responsible for key public policies to draw up “a scenario that reconciles the calculation of resources and the flow of public expenditure to ensure financing and results of public policies.”

By doing this, the ministry intends to carry on “an orderly fiscal administration” in 2024. This proposal means lowering the deficit at a higher speed than what Argentina’s current economic program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stipulates, as the roadmap sanctioned in 2022 calls for a 0.9% deficit for the next year.

The Ministry announced additional measures, such as a new simplified tax regime for freelancers who work for companies abroad and are paid in US dollars (“monotributo tech”), a financing program for corn and wheat farmers, tax exemptions for importers that pay with their own US dollars, and a call for bids to launch the so-called tranche reversal of the North Gas Pipeline, among others.