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 Yamandú Orsi in last November’s election “isn’t a chainsaw,” Oddone said in an interview. Uruguay’s social contract is guaranteed by the state.”Orsi’s measured approach to healing public finances contrasts with the harsh austerity championed by neighbouring Argentina’s leader, Javier Milei, who has fired thousands of civil servants and shuttered entire ministries. Those moves should generate enough revenue to start cutting the deficit in earnest in 2027, the finance minister said. “All tools are on the table and all of them can be used depending on the scenario because fiscal stability is key” to social stability, he said.