Argentine President Javier Milei has rejected investor calls to allow the peso to float freely following his victory in midterm elections, after the US spent an estimated $2bn propping up the Argentine currency last month.

Buoyed by an unexpectedly large win over the leftwing opposition Peronists, Milei vowed in an interview with the Financial Times to accelerate his free-market reforms and deepen his alliance with President Donald Trump. “We have to ensure?.?.?.?we can kill the socialist ideas which have ruined this country for 100 years,” he said.

Milei suggested that he would keep the peso within gradually widening bands against the US dollar at least until elections in late 2027 to temper Argentina’s chronic volatility, dismissing criticism that the policy had led to the currency becoming overvalued earlier this year.