Argentina

• Sunday, December 31st 2017 - 10:48 UTC

  IMF report on Argentina: good, but watch out borrowing to finance the budget deficit

  

  The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday raised its outlook for Argentina’s economic growth to 2.8% in 2017, up from 2.5% seen in October, while keeping its forecast for 2018 growth steady at 2.5%.

• Friday, December 29th 2017 - 10:26 UTC

  Argentina aggressively promoting cruise tourism with lower costs for large vessels

  

  Argentina is expecting 490.000 cruise visitors this season and is targeting a million visitors in the following years, and to promote this policy it has announced a drastic cut in port fees and costs, with special emphasis on those vessels which are over 300 meters long.

• Friday, December 29th 2017 - 09:38 UTC

  Argentina's Merval breaks the 30.000-point barrier and ends 2017 gaining 77%

  

  Merval, the benchmark stock market index in Argentina, ended Thursday's last trading session of 2017 above the 30,000-point barrier for the first time in history. The index rose 2.84% to 30,024.24 after the local government increased the inflation target for the next couple of years, but reinforced its commitment to lower fiscal deficits in the future.

• Friday, December 29th 2017 - 09:32 UTC

  Argentina increases inflation targets for 2018/19, closer to private estimates

  

  Argentina changed its inflation target for 2018 to 15%, up from the central bank’s previous goal of 8-12%, Treasury Minister Nicolas Dujovne said on Thursday, raising expectations for interest rate cuts. The government will postpone by one year its goal of lowering inflation to 5%, pushing it back to 2020, Dujovne said.

• Friday, December 29th 2017 - 06:55 UTC

  US withdraws support for the search of the ARA San Juan submarine

  

  The United States Southern Command announced the U.S. was withdrawing support for the mission to find the Argentine submarine that went missing last month with 44 aboard in the South Atlantic.

• Thursday, December 28th 2017 - 10:30 UTC

  Argentine Senate approves tax reform and 2018 budget; economy expanded 0.2% in October

  

  Argentina’s Senate on Wednesday gave final approval to the government’s tax reform and 2018 budget plan, part of President Mauricio Macri’s push to cut business costs and attract investment to Latin America’s No. 3 economy.

• Thursday, December 28th 2017 - 10:18 UTC

  Argentina's stock market Merval has gained around 75% in the last twelve months

  

  Merval, the benchmark stock market index in Argentina, rose 0.25% to 29,260.33 on Wednesday, reflecting investor optimism that the Senate would pass the 2018 budget and a tax reform. It was the seventh consecutive increase of the index.

• Wednesday, December 27th 2017 - 11:08 UTC

  Argentine Air Force base turned into an airport for low cost airlines' operations

  

  El Palomar airport to the west of metropolitan Buenos Aires was officially incorporated to Argentina's National System of Airports and will be open for the low cost airlines to operate, beginning January.

• Wednesday, December 27th 2017 - 11:02 UTC

  Federal Judge Griesa who presided over Argentina's dispute with hedge funds, has died

  

  A New York federal judge who drew the ire of Argentine government officials in a long-running case over Argentina’s debts has died. Judge Thomas P. Griesa was 87, and spent 45 years on the federal bench.

• Wednesday, December 27th 2017 - 09:36 UTC

  Moody's expects Argentine economic recovery in 2018 and 2019

  

  Credit risk rating agency Moody's expects Argentina's economic recovery to continue in 2018 and 2019, helped by the reforms advanced by the Mauricio Macri's administration in the last two years.