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The Justicialists (Peronists) took a sizable lead in polling early on, however, even as nearly half the voters remained undecided. Hoping to translate this into a UCR victory over the outspoken and eccentric Menem, President Alfonsín enacted an August 1988 "Springtime Plan" in a bid for lower inflation (then running at 27% monthly). The plan, criticized as a rehashed "Austral Plan" by the CGT, called for budget cuts and renewed wage freezes - policies they blamed for sliding living standards. Initially successful, a record drought late in the year buffeted critical export earnings and led to [[rolling blackout]]s, dissipating any gains Angeloz might have made from the "relief" of 6% monthly inflation.
A perennial third-party candidate, conservative economist [[Álvaro Alsogaray]], made gains following the [[1989 attack on La Tablada barracks|January 1989 assault]] by
Following a sharp drop in [[Central Bank of Argentina|Central Bank]] reserves, the austral fell around 29% to the [[U.S. dollar]] in heavy trading on "black Tuesday," February 7. The sudden drop in the austral's value threatened the nation's tenuous financial stability and, later that month, the [[World Bank]] recalled a large [[tranche]] of a loan package agreed on in 1988, sending the austral into a tailspin: trading at 17 to the dollar in January, the dollar quoted at over 100 australes by election day, May 14. Inflation, which had been held to the 5-10% monthly range as late as February, rose to 78.5% in May, shattering records and leading to a landslide victory for the Peronists. Polling revealed that economic anxieties were paramount among two-thirds of voters and Menem won in 19 of 22 provinces, while losing in the traditionally anti-Peronist Federal District ([[Buenos Aires]]).
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