
Former Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner will stand trial for the first time on February 26, after a court rejected her bid to postpone proceedings over alleged embezzlement against her and other former government officials.

An IMF team is back in Buenos Aires to review the Argentine economy performance and how it is complying with the fiscal and monetary conditions established in the stand-by US$ 57 billion loan agreed last year. The head of the mission Roberto Cardarelli is scheduled to meet ministers, central bank officials, members of Congress from the ruling coalition and opposition, academia and different lobbies.

Presidents from Uruguay and Argentina, Tabare Vazquez and Mauricio Macri, will be meeting on Wednesday to discuss an open agenda, but which according to Buenos Aires sources will be centered on the Venezuelan situation, where the two countries hold different positions. The meeting is scheduled to take place in Colonia, at the Anchorena Park, which is an official resting place of the Uruguayan Executive, and a twenty minutes helicopter flight distance from Buenos Aires.

In a long interview published this weekend in Clarin, UK ambassador Mark Kent emphasized on the coincidences of UK and Argentina, admitted his appeal in Twitter, a form of soft power, which has made him one of the most popular foreign diplomats in Buenos Aires.

A South Korean flagged trawler allegedly operating in Argentine waters was caught on Thursday red-handed with its nets in the sea and is being escorted to Comodoro Rivadavia.

Vaca Muerta, the biggest shale play in Argentina, led a year-on-year increase in oil and natural gas production in 2018 in Neuquen, as more companies bet on the resources for growth in the southwestern province.

Manufacturing performance in Argentina during 2018 was one of the worst since the 2001/02 collapse and melting of the country's economy according to the latest release from the stats office, Indec. Manufacturing dropped 14.7% in December compared to the same month in 2017, ending 2018 with an overall decrease of 5%.

Auto production in Argentina continued to fall at the beginning of the year, having dropped 32.2% compared to twelve months before. This means total January auto production was 14.803 units, which is 7.055 less than in January 2018, 21.858. The figures were made public by Argentina's Automobile Manufacturers Association, Adefa.

The construction industry in Argentina ended 2018 with a paltry 0.8% growth, and although taking off at the beginning of last year with a vigorous impulse but beginning May, when the financial situation forced the Peso to lose half of its purchasing power, activity started to freeze ending December with a 20.5% collapse.

Argentine ex-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has – for the third time – been called for questioning under the framework of so-called notebooks graft case. Key business leaders and ex-public officials were also summoned, with prosecutors and judges probing alleged corruption and bribery centred on the ex-head of state's government.