Argentine bonds and the country’s embattled peso currency fell for a second day on Thursday, cranking up the challenge facing President Mauricio Macri as his drop in the polls ahead of knife-edge elections later this year unnerves investors.
Argentina lived on Thursday another day in which the dollar rebounded and the country risk exceeded 1000 points. President Mauricio Macri criticized the short-term view of the markets and the Central Bank (BCRA) had to intervene by positioning the interest rate at 70% and diverting the futures market to contain the demand on the currency, preventing it from reaching the maximum accorded of 51.45 pesos.
Argentine economy Minister Nicolás Dujovne stated that political uncertainty ahead of the upcoming presidential election this October is the main factor for increases in Argentina's country risk and instability on the exchange markets.
Argentina ran a primary fiscal deficit of 13.037 billion pesos (US$ 305.32 million) in March, the country’s Treasury minister Nicolás Dujovne said at a press conference on Monday, though posted a first-quarter surplus of 10.347 billion pesos.
Bolivia is looking at exporting natural gas globally through liquefaction terminals to be built in Argentina, and to buy crude from its southern neighbor, Bolivian President Evo Morales said on Monday, a move that would compensate for dwindling sales of its main export to Argentina and Brazil.
Mauricio Macri's original plan was to address Argentina’s citizens on television on the final working day before the Easter break. But he opted for a folksier way of presenting an economic package that he hopes will rescue his chances of being re-elected president in October. He appeared in a taped video, knocking on the door of a house belonging to a young working-class couple, then sitting down with them to explain his plan.
Argentina's President Mauricio Macri announced a freeze in the price of basic goods and public services on Wednesday in a bid to limit the impact of spiraling inflation that could hamper his re-election hopes in October. Hit by soaring prices due to inflation that reached almost 55% over the last 12 months, many Argentines have been calling for a change in economic policy.
Argentina's inflation rate accelerated for the third straight month in March, the government statistics agency said on Tuesday, prompting the central bank to unveil fresh measures to temper raging inflation and protect the embattled peso currency.
The assassination squad created by Argentina’s military dictatorship to target dissidents during the 1970s had, like other state programs, its own bureaucratic rules: Employees punched in at 9:30 a.m. and were entitled to a two-hour lunch. They received a US$ 1,000 clothing allowance during their first overseas mission. And they were required to submit expense reports.
The United States handed thousands of documents on Friday to Argentina on disappearances by the military dictatorship (1976/1983), completing Washington's biggest-ever transfer of documents to another government.