Debt piles up for young Argentines, testing support for President Milei
At 18, Martín Taborda began studying law at Argentina’s prestigious University of Buenos Aires, hoping to become the first in his family to graduate. Just two years later, that dream has slipped out of reach.
Unemployed and $1,300 in debt, he can no longer afford the bus fare from his suburb or the books he needs to keep studying — even at a tuition-free university that has helped generations of Argentines climb into the middle class.
He’s not alone. Nearly half of Argentina’s 45 million people owe money, and more than 5 million are behind on payments, according to the Center for City Studies, an Argentine nonprofit that tracks debt using central bank data. Borrowers under 25 have the highest delinquency rate of any age group, at 37.6%.
“There’s hardly any work for anyone in this country right now,” said Taborda, who borrowed the equivalent of just over $100 through a mobile payment app in 2024 for education expenses. His debt swelled tenfold as interest accrued on missed payments. Forced to rely on others, he said, “You start to feel like a parasite.”
A new wave of household debt is testing support for President Javier Milei among the young Argentines who helped elect him, and offering the nation’s fragmented opposition an opening to rally disillusioned voters ahead of next year’s presidential election.
Lawmakers debate plan to rein in debt
Opposition lawmakers have called a special session of Congress for Wednesday to consider interest-rate caps and other measures to help Argentines renegotiate their debts. Labor unions and debtors planned to protest outside the building during the debate, which strikes at the heart of Milei’s free-market experiment as voters increasingly look beyond his success in taming inflation to bigger concerns about jobs and wages.
“Households took on debt to survive and now cannot repay it,” left-wing lawmaker Nicolás del Caño and fellow sponsors wrote in their legislative proposal, describing it as “an emergency measure to address the crisis.”
Milei has rejected calls for government relief, arguing that unpaid debts are a private matter between borrowers and lenders rather than a symptom of wider economic distress.
Economy Minister Luis Caputo promised at a recent press conference that banks were easing repayment terms, although he added, “We shouldn’t confuse empathy with public policy.”
Argentines are borrowing just to get by
On a recent afternoon, Taborda joined a few dozen other students in a classroom at his university’s economics school to discuss the emotional toll of their debts.
The gathering followed confidentiality rules similar to those of Alcoholics Anonymous. A moderator asked for a show of hands: Who bought groceries in installments? Who borrowed through payment apps to make ends meet? Who took on debt to repay old loans?
Most hands went up.
