Argentina’s embattled peso gained strength on Monday after the central bank said it would ease limits on its foreign exchange market interventions, signaling its willingness to sell reserves in an effort to better control the volatility of the local currency. The peso began the session up 3.37% and closed 3.56% stronger at 44.37 per U.S. dollar.
A national strike will halt much of shale-rich Argentina's economy on Tuesday amid growing investor concern that market-oriented president Mauricio Macri will lose a bid for re-election in October, swinging Argentina back toward state intervention.
Argentina’s peso fell back on Friday afternoon to post a record low close, giving up earlier gains after a tumultuous week that saw the currency battered to its weakest ever level and local debt pummeled as anxious investors fled.
Argentine bonds and the country’s embattled peso currency fell for a second day on Thursday, cranking up the challenge facing President Mauricio Macri as his drop in the polls ahead of knife-edge elections later this year unnerves investors.
Argentina lived on Thursday another day in which the dollar rebounded and the country risk exceeded 1000 points. President Mauricio Macri criticized the short-term view of the markets and the Central Bank (BCRA) had to intervene by positioning the interest rate at 70% and diverting the futures market to contain the demand on the currency, preventing it from reaching the maximum accorded of 51.45 pesos.
Argentine economy Minister Nicolás Dujovne stated that political uncertainty ahead of the upcoming presidential election this October is the main factor for increases in Argentina's country risk and instability on the exchange markets.
Argentina ran a primary fiscal deficit of 13.037 billion pesos (US$ 305.32 million) in March, the country’s Treasury minister Nicolás Dujovne said at a press conference on Monday, though posted a first-quarter surplus of 10.347 billion pesos.
Bolivia is looking at exporting natural gas globally through liquefaction terminals to be built in Argentina, and to buy crude from its southern neighbor, Bolivian President Evo Morales said on Monday, a move that would compensate for dwindling sales of its main export to Argentina and Brazil.
Mauricio Macri's original plan was to address Argentina’s citizens on television on the final working day before the Easter break. But he opted for a folksier way of presenting an economic package that he hopes will rescue his chances of being re-elected president in October. He appeared in a taped video, knocking on the door of a house belonging to a young working-class couple, then sitting down with them to explain his plan.
Argentina's President Mauricio Macri announced a freeze in the price of basic goods and public services on Wednesday in a bid to limit the impact of spiraling inflation that could hamper his re-election hopes in October. Hit by soaring prices due to inflation that reached almost 55% over the last 12 months, many Argentines have been calling for a change in economic policy.