With debt servicing now the biggest item in the budget after labour and social affairs, with few valuable state assets left to sell, and with the need to respect the toughish debt criteria for countries that have adopted Europe's single currency, the government faces overwhelming pressure to show thrift.
Yet, though Argentina devotes only a third as much, per citizen, as Chile to military spending, that is still the largest item in its federal budget, a quarter of it, the huge cost of state pensions excluded.