During his first year as president, Javier Milei has been waging a bitter but largely successful campaign against inflation.

Now, Argentines received more welcome news: their economy is growing again.

"Economic activity rose 1.3 percent from April, above the 0.1 percent median estimate from analysts in a Bloomberg survey and the first month of growth since Milei's term began in December," Bloomberg reported on July 18. "From a year ago, the proxy for gross domestic product grew 2.3 percent."

The positive economic report, based on data from the Argentine government, is a surprise to many.

The 2.3 percent year-over-year increase defied expectations of a decline of similar magnitude, Bloomberg reported. As Semafor notes, the Argentine economy was projected to have the least economic growth of any country in the world in 2024, according to the International Monetary Fund.

A 'Wrecking Ball'?

Argentine economists I spoke to said that the numbers are encouraging, but the country's economy is far from being out of the woods.

As most people know, Milei inherited an economic mess decades in the making. When the self-described anarcho-capitalist assumed office in December, Argentina was suffering from the third highest inflation rate in the world—211 percent year over year. The poverty rate was north of 40 percent, and Argentina's economy was declining.

With his country's economy in a full tailspin from decades of Peronism, Milei proposed a series of economic reforms dubbed "shock therapy" that consisted primarily of three components: slashing government spending, cutting bureaucracy, and devaluing the peso.