
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.

United States Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan will travel with Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump to Colombia, Argentina, and Paraguay September 3-6.

Argentina will negotiate with holders of its sovereign bonds and the International Monetary Fund to extend the maturities of its debt obligations, as a way of ensuring the country's ability to pay, Treasury Minister Hernan Lacunza said on Wednesday.

Argentina’s peso was battered on Wednesday as the central bank sold US$ 367 million of its dollar reserves in a second consecutive day of heavy intervention aimed at controlling the currency’s fall. Likewise the country risk rose 135 basis points to 2,125, its highest in 14 years, before partially recovering, according to the JP Morgan Emerging Markets Bond Index Plus.

The International Monetary Fund is analyzing the impact of a new debt plan announced by Argentina’s Treasury Ministry on Wednesday, an IMF spokesman said. IMF staff understands that Argentina has taken “important steps” to address liquidity needs and safeguard reserves, the statement by IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said.

The Argentine government declassified a secret decree from the latest military dictatorship which authorized and funded an operation for the “effective and peaceful” occupation of one of the South Atlantic islands, occupied by the UK , in what was considered a first step to the ultimate goal of taking over the Falkland Islands.