Argentine bond prices fell to record lows on Monday and the official and black-market pesos diverged after the country imposed capital controls in a bid to stem a currency rout that is sharpening the risk of default.
The leader of the Argentine opposition and favorite to become the next president in October's election is currently spending time in Spain and Portugal where he has an academic, political and rest and recover agenda, which begins this Tuesday at the Camilo Cela José University with a conference on politics and voters, a perspective from the electoral campaigns.
Argentina on Sunday imposed foreign-exchange controls on exporters as it closed out a week of financial uncertainty that saw a sharp drop in the peso. Exporters were ordered to seek permission from the Central Bank of Argentina before purchasing foreign currency, according to a decree published in the Official Bulletin.
The International Monetary Fund said it will stand by Argentina after the government authorized currency controls on Sunday in an about-face by President Mauricio Macri, who had previously lifted many protectionist practices of his predecessor, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
Argentina’s battered bonds were driven still lower on Friday after a credit rating cut from Standard & Poor’s triggered automatic selling mechanisms at big pension funds. Risk spreads blew out to levels not seen since 2005 while the local peso currency extended its year-to-date slide to 36%, forcing renewed central bank market intervention and intensifying worries about Argentina’s ability to honor its dollar-denominated debt.
Credit risk agency Standard & Poors announced on Thursday that it was slashing Argentina’s long-term credit rating another three notches into the deepest area of junk debt, saying the government’s plan to “unilaterally” extend maturities had triggered a brief default.
Argentine bond prices fell on Thursday and the country risk soared to levels not seen since 2005 after the government announced plans to extend maturities on an estimated US$ 100bn in debt, raising fear of a full-blown financial crisis.
The extreme south Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego has sent letters to the Foreign Ministry and to the Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic Department expressing concern about a Falkland Islands stand at the British pavilion in the coming international agriculture show in Prado, Montevideo, Uruguay to take place between September 3 and 15.
The man widely expected to become Argentina’s next president asked farmers from the country’s key grains sector on Thursday to put aside their bitter differences with the government of his running mate, former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, and move forward with him.
United States said on Wednesday it expects to continue with the solid association with Argentina, 'whoever is the candidate that the Argentine people elect as their next president', on 27 October according to a source from US State Department Western Hemisphere Affairs.