BUENOS AIRES, March 2. /TASS/. Argentinian President Javier Milei has asked citizens to be patient until his government's shock reforms show results, but did not give an approximate timeframe.

"I ask only one thing of Argentinians: patience and trust. It will take time before we see the fruits of the economic recovery and the reforms we are implementing. Moreover, we have not yet felt the full impact of the disaster we inherited," he said at the opening of the parliamentary session.

According to Milei, his government is on the right track. "For the first time in history, we are tackling the cause of the problem, the fiscal deficit, and not the symptoms, so I ask for patience and trust because no matter how dark the night, the sun always rises in the morning," he said.

Milei, who took office as president on December 10, 2023, in his first speech as head of state, described the country's situation as critical and said that shock measures were needed in the economy. He admitted, however, that his reforms would initially have a negative impact on "economic activity, employment, wages, poverty and poverty levels." According to researchers at the Catholic University of Argentina, the country's poverty rate rose from 49.5% to 57.4% between December 2023 and January 2024. The increase in the number of poor people occurred against a backdrop of accelerating inflation - in November 2023 the figure was 12.8%, in December - 25.5%, in January - 20.6%.