A year after becoming president, Javier Milei has been praised inside and outside Argentina for reining in galloping inflation. But his economic policies have inflicted widespread hardship.

Milei's series of austerity measures has been brutal. Unemployment has climbed, economic activity has declined and poverty has surged. But now signs have emerged that Argentina’s bizarre and long mismanaged economy is starting to look a little more normal.

When libertarian President Javier Milei assumed office one year ago, Argentine supermarkets were marking price increases on an almost daily basis. Middle-class families tried to spend their rapidly depreciating pesos as quickly as they got them, and economists warned the country was teetering on the brink of hyperinflation.