Argentina “made progress” on Tuesday in talks with the International Monetary Fund aimed at securing an accelerated disbursement of a US$50 billion loan it hopes will calm its debilitating economic crisis.
Argentina’s beleaguered peso stabilized on Friday as the central bank said it would auction a large amount of dollar reserves, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued a strong statement of support for President Mauricio Macri’s government.
Argentina's Peso suffered its biggest one-day slide in almost three years on Wednesday after the central bank sold reserves for a second straight day and the president asked the International Monetary Fund for early release of standby funds.
Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, met with Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri, Finance Minister Nicolas Dujovne and Central Bank Governor Luis Caputo in the context of the Group of 20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in Buenos Aires over the weekend.
The UK Government position is unchanged: only the Falkland Islanders have the right to determine their own political and economic future, stated Phillip Hammond in Buenos Aires where he attended a two-day G20 ministers meeting.
Argentina posted a primary fiscal deficit of 105.8 billion pesos (US$3.7 billion), or 0.8% of gross domestic product (GDP) in the first half of 2018, government data showed on Thursday, down 26.7% from the same period last year.
Consumer prices rose 3.7% in June in Argentina, official data showed on Tuesday. That brought 12-month inflation to 29.5%, up from 26.3% in the 12 months through May, the INDEC national statistics bureau announced, which makes it the highest monthly recorded figure of the last two years.
On a residential street corner in Buenos Aires, Van Koning Market sells imported beers to the city’s well-heeled. Since it opened in June last year costs have soared. The peso has plummeted, meaning wholesale prices have shot up. Inflation is running at 26%; the reduction of government subsidies means the monthly electricity bill has risen from 700 pesos to 4,000 pesos (US$ 142).
Argentina will allow fuel retailers to freely set pump prices starting in August, according to an Energy Ministry official familiar with the plan, a move that could encourage badly needed investment in the nation's oil patch but risks worsening sky-high inflation and angering consumers.
Argentina's peso rose sharply on Monday as a new central bank chief took his first moves to shore up the battered currency, while escalating fears of a damaging trade war between the United States and China drove Latin American stocks down. The Argentine peso jumped after the central bank said it will hike bank's reserve requirements in a move expected to tighten local-currency liquidity after the latest run on the peso.