In a continuation of a previous arrangement, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved Colombia for a flexible credit line of US$ 11.4 billion. The new two-year arrangement replaces the pre-existing credit line, which has now been cancelled. Colombia will continue to see the funds as precautionary to be used only in if economic conditions worsen due to an external shock or other emergency, according to the IMF.
Following twelve hours of heated and at time acrimonious debate the Argentine Senate on early Thursday voted, 37 to 30, to freeze utility prices. President Mauricio Macri had anticipated that if the bill was passed he would veto it because there is no way the budget can stand an additional 1% of GDP deficit.
The late MIT economist Rüdiger Dornbusch used to tell his students in the 1980s that there are four kinds of countries: rich, poor, Japan, and Argentina. No one frets anymore about Japan buying its way to world domination. But the world is worrying again about Argentina.
Italy's president set the country on a path back to fresh elections on Monday, appointing a former International Monetary Fund official as interim prime minister with the task of planning for snap polls and to pass the next budget. The decision to appoint Carlo Cottarelli to form a stopgap administration sets the stage for elections that are likely to be fought over Italy's role in the European Union and the euro zone, a prospect that is rattling global financial markets.
“We are really moving ahead and we have committed to President Macri that we will do the best we can in order to move expeditiously and efficiently in order to change the perception about Argentina and the perception that people have about our role,” Ms Lagarde said in Russia.
A sigh of relief from Argentine president Mauricio Macri and his administration following on Friday's Tedeum by the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, which marks the Church' message on May 25, the symbolic celebration of the first independence efforts during the 1810 Revolution.
A few hours before the presidential election of May 20 in Venezuela, which is not recognized by dozens of countries in the region and is classified as fraud by the opposition of that country, official statements and messages favorable to the candidate and current president , Nicolás Maduro, have flooded the programs of the open media in Venezuela, according to a report by the Press Institute and Venezuela Society (IPYS).
Argentina’s central bank on Tuesday rolled over billions of dollars in short-term debt, providing President Mauricio Macri’s government with a shot of confidence after weeks of economic volatility. In a statement, the Argentine central bank said it refinanced all of the US$ 26 billion of peso-denominated short term bonds that matured on Tuesday. Investors were attracted by renewal rates of 40% for 36-day Lebac and 38% and 38,5% for 90 days and plus, Lebacs.
Argentina has much in common with yesterday's emerging markets, but little in common with today's
The Argentine Congress passed the government's capital markets reform bill on Wednesday, seeking to boost a troubled economy by reducing the power of market regulators and loosening restrictions on some funds investing in Argentina. Investors and economists consider the reform bill key to President Mauricio Macri's effort to boost investment in the country, whose capital markets are far smaller than regional peers.