Argentina's private sector has shrunk by 30,633 registered companies since Javier Milei was sworn in as president in December 2023, a decline equal to roughly 6% of the country's entire business base, according to the Fundar think tank's monthly business monitor, which draws on labor-insurance registry data through May 2026. Fundar calls it the sharpest 30-month contraction of the country's company count under any Argentine government on record. The independent Centro de Economía Política Argentina (CEPA) arrived at a matching figure for lost businesses and layered on its own estimate of the toll on formal employment.
The numbers are landing at an awkward moment for the president, who has spent much of 2026 telling investors abroad that his libertarian economic overhaul is paying off — a pitch that has grown harder to square with financial markets in just the past two weeks.
