Javier Milei warned his ministers to avoid taking expensive or ostentatious holidays over the festive season, especially anything involving foreign travel.

The Argentine president’s admonition comes as it emerged that his country had just exited a deep recession triggered by his austerity package, with GDP growing 3.9 per cent from July to September.

Yet many ordinary citizens are continuing to suffer and in cabinet, Milei specifically name-checked New York, Miami and Punta del Este, an upmarket Uruguayan beach resort, as places he wanted his cabinet to avoid in the coming days. All three have long been popular destinations for wealthy Argentines.

He added that holidays should be “austere”. Mr Milei, who will personally not be taking any time off over Christmas and the New Year, stressed that ministers should be especially careful to avoid being photographed or filmed while on leave.

“He asked for the ministers to be reasonable with the holidays they take and that they match what they were doing in their prior lives [before joining the government],” presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni told Spain’s El País newspaper.