Argentine government logged April budget surplus of nearly $20 million

FILE PHOTO: Argentina's President Javier Milei attends the commemoration of the Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking the 81st anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, at the Centro Cultural Kirchner (CCK), in Buenos Aires, Argentina May 8, 2024. REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian/File Photo

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina achieved a fiscal surplus of 17.4 billion pesos ($19.6 million) for April, the economy minister said on Thursday, marking the fourth successive month that public spending figures were in positive territory under new President Javier Milei.

Luis Caputo, Milei's economy chief, revealed the monthly budget surplus in a post on X.

The government of Milei, a libertarian economist, achieved a first-quarter surplus of some 275 billion pesos in March, the first of its kind in 16 years.

The often bombastic Milei took office in December, after riding a wave of voter frustration over an extended economic crisis that has hit the wallets of weary Argentines with a steadily growing inflation rate that currently stands at nearly 290%.

Milei cites decades of government overspending as the main culprit for the country's triple-digit inflation, and has pushed severe austerity polices in a bid to tame it.

($1 = 886.0000 Argentine pesos)

(Reporting by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Valentine Hilaire and Bill Berkrot)