Argentina’s government said it will call off plans to sell the state’s 51% stake in YPF, the country’s biggest energy company, as a concession to gain congressional approval for a battery of economic reforms.
“YPF will be taken off the list of companies to privatize,” the government said an eight-page document it submitted to legislators and run in the local press.
President Javier Milei, a far-right libertarian who took office in December, said during his campaigning and after taking office that he planned to sell all state companies, saying that the private sector can run them better. Before selling the shares in YPF, however, he said that the company would need to be rebuilt to boost the potential sales price.
That plan may not prosper now in exchange for getting approval from opposition legislators for the president’s “omnibus” of more than 300 bills designed to restore economic stability, rebuild reserves and revive economic growth.