Argentina has entered a technical recession in the first quarter, official data showed on Monday, and job losses mounted amid a tough austerity drive by President Javier Milei who is prioritizing restoring fiscal order.

The country's GDP shrank 2.6 percent in the first quarter of the year versus the final quarter of last year, the second consecutive quarter-on-quarter contraction, the usual definition of a recession.

The official INDEC statistics agency also released jobs data, which showed the jobless rate rising to 7.7 percent in the first quarter, up from 5.7 percent at the end of last year. That meant some 300,000 newly unemployed people since the previous quarter.

AGENCIES VIA XINHUA