In what promises to be a week of surprises as the Argentine government unfolds measures to contain the price of the US dollar, this Monday the peso held relatively stable after last week's sharp devaluation. While the official rate remained unchanged at 8.01 Pesos for a greenback, in the parallel market it climbed to 12.15 Pesos.
The Paris Club said it would study an outline from Argentina for repaying the more than 9.5 billion dollars it owes the group of creditor nations. Argentina is eager to resolve the problem of its outstanding debt with the group in order to regain access to international capital markets from which it has been shut out since its 2002 default.
Desperately credit-short Argentina outlined on Monday its conditions for repaying some 9.5 billion dollars in debt to the Paris Club, a senior official at the group of creditor nations said, as the government of President Cristina Fernandez seeks to revive long-stalled talks. Argentina's international reserves have fallen to its lowest level since 2006.
The US dollar reached a new record high on Thursday as purchase pressure on the so called “blue” or informal market continues pushing the price which closed 35 cents up at 11.50 pesos for buyers and 11.55 pesos for sellers.
Argentina has negotiated a new inflation-fighting attempt: regulating prices of nearly 200 supermarket staples, scheduled to go into effect January 1, the Commerce Department said Friday. The deal was reached with different chambers and pretends to keep prices unchanged for twelve months.
Argentina will from next week open the doors for Brazilian imports held up on the border between the two nations, including footwear and motor vehicles, according to Brazilian Minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade Fernando Pimentel.
In an attempt to stop the drain of Argentina Central Bank international reserves, the government of President Cristina Fernandez has decided to take the 20% income tax advance to 35% for all credit and debit card purchases made abroad. The move will also involve the purchase of dollars for Argentines travelling abroad with the US currency climbing now to 8.322 pesos.
The dispute between the Argentine government and Repsol over the seizure of a 51% stake in petroleum company YPF has shown some signs of cooling, with the Ministry of Economy announcing on Monday that an agreement in principle for compensating the Spanish corporation had been reached.
Fiat Argentina CEO Cristiano Rattazzi said that Argentina is on fire because of inflation and called on the newly appointed cabinet chief Jorge Capitanich and Economy minister Axel Kicillof to work hard to bring inflation down.
In an emotional but brief (eleven minutes) ceremony Argentine President Cristina Fernandez, on Wednesday late evening, was back on stage at the Casa Rosada, the first time since she underwent cranium surgery six weeks ago, for the oath-taking ceremony of three new top officials who will be decisive ministers in the last two years of her second mandate.