Uruguay’s Finance Minister Shuns Chainsaw for Modest Tax Hikes

Uruguay’s new left-wing government plans to lower the budget deficit through tax increases early in its term to avoid politically contentious spending cuts or additional levies later on, according to Finance Minister Gabriel Oddone.

The mandate given to President Yamandu Orsiin last November’s election “isn’t a chainsaw,” Oddone said in an interview. “People don’t think the state is corrupt. Uruguay’s social contract is guaranteed by the state.”

Orsi’s measured approach to healing public finances contrasts with the harsh austerity championed by neighboring Argentina’s libertarian leader, Javier Milei, who has fired thousands of civil servants and shuttered entire ...