When walking through the Boedo neighborhood in Argentina's capital Buenos Aires you get to hear entirely different opinions about the country's president Javier Milei. One is marked by optimism, the other comes from people who remain largely skeptic.

Signs of disapproval are hard to miss. At a local store, a poster is hung up reading "No entry" and showing the pictures of President Milei and Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, who are clearly not welcome here.

Yet just around the corner, construction workers hammer and lay bricks on a new apartment building — revealing a new confidence in the future of a country rebuilding itself.

Since taking office as Argentina's president on December 10, 2023, Milei has become one of the world's most talked-about leaders. His radical libertarian stance has earned him fierce criticism from the left, while many economists see him as a reformer liberating Argentina from decades of bureaucracy and rigid controls.

Milei lifts currency controls in historic move

Milei's most recent bold move was ending the so-called "cepo" restrictions — a Spanish term meaning "trap" or "shackles" — which had restricted access to US dollars for over two decades. Introduced in 2003 with the aim of curbing Argentina's runaway inflation, the currency controls were officially lifted in mid-April, allowing individuals and businesses to freely conduct foreign exchange transactions.

"Contrary to alarmist predictions from many local and international economists, the exchange rate did not skyrocket," Aldo Abram of the libertarian think tank Fundacion Libertad y Progreso in Buenos Aires told DW. "On the contrary, the rate stabilized below its pre-liberalization level. The market normalized without a crisis, without a [bank] run and without devaluation."

The government celebrated the historic move, showing pictures of Milei and his economy minister, Luis Caputo, raising their arms as if celebrating a goal of their favorite football team.

In a recent televised address, Milei said his policies had brought Argentina on the right track, and he reaffirmed his commitment to fiscal discipline. "After more than 100 years of chronic budget deficits, we are now one of the five countries in the world that only spends what it earns — not a single peso more," he declared.

Milei reiterated his vision for Argentina's future, announcing the end of currency controls and promising that Argentina would experience the highest economic growth globally over the next 30 years.

"It won't happen overnight," Milei admitted, "but it will happen gradually and with the assurance that we've done our homework, both domestically and internationally, to reduce volatility as much as possible."

There have been some early signs of success. According to Argentina's national statistics agency INDEC, poverty has dropped to 38.1% — slightly below the level Milei inherited. Inflation has also decreased by 44.5% year-on-year in 2024, INDEC data shows.

Milei's 'chainsaw' policies leave scars

Svenja Blanke of Germany's left-leaning Friedrich Ebert Foundation views the economic outlook with caution. Speaking with DW, she criticized the government for using the exchange rate as a "kind of crutch" to suppress inflation.

As a result, she noted, the Argentine peso has appreciated, leading to paradoxes like a Big Mac costing the equivalent of €5.48 ($6.30) — comparable to Germany — while the minimum hourly wage stands at just €1.06, which is far below Germany's €12.82.

"This is essentially a kind of social chainsaw massacre," she said, citing severe cuts to wages, education, research, culture, public infrastructure and historical memory.

Hans-Dieter Holtzmann of the liberal Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Germany is more confident about Argentina's economic future. "With the removal of capital controls and a more flexible exchange rate, major barriers to Argentina's economic recovery have been lifted," he told DW.

Despite the country's wealth of energy and mineral resources — including natural gas, hydrogen, lithium and copper — foreign investors have "so far remained cautious," he said. This is why it is so important now, he added, that the European Union ratifythe free trade agreement with the Mercosur bloc — of which Argentina is a member — "as quickly as possible." Both Argentina and Germany would stand to benefit from the new opportunities of investing and doing business, he said.

Pain and gain

In downtown Buenos Aires, meanwhile, Milei's radical reforms are reaping mixed results.

On the one hand, restaurants and cafes are bustling — seemingly at odds with the opposition's constant talk of crisis. Also, a recent general strike drew only modest participation, suggesting that after three such strikes since Milei took office, unions may have overplayed their hand. It seems most Argentines appear ready to move forward, to work and to leave the crisis behind.

But not all is well, as weekly protests by retirees, who saw their pensions cut, are proving. Milei's austerity measures have taken a heavy toll on their real purchasing power, and that of many others in the country.

Contrary to Milei's claim that only the "caste," as he called the pre-2023 mostly leftist political elite, would bear the brunt of reform, they too are suffering.

So, after 500 days of radical transformation, the question of whether or not Milei can deliver long-term prosperity without leaving too many Argentines behind is still unanswered.

This article was originally written in German.

Correction, April 24, 2025: An earlier version of this article misidentified Argentina's finance minister. That has now been corrected, DW apologizes for the error.