The he Argentine peso climbed more than 4% on Monday trading on the back of a debt sale by the central bank aimed at mopping up excess liquidity and signs that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is solidly behind the administration of president Mauricio Macri.
Argentina has “nearly closed” a new currency swap deal with China that will add the equivalent of US$ 9 billion to the South American country’s reserves, the central bank said on Sunday. Argentina and China first agreed to a swap program in 2009 to boost the South American country’s dwindling reserves under former President Cristina Fernandez. Last year, the center-right government of President Mauricio Macri and China agreed to extend the program for three more years.
The controversial Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, expressed his complete support for the decision of the presidents of Argentina, Mauricio Macri; of Chile, Sebastián Piñera; of Colombia, Iván Duque; of Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benítez; of Peru, Martín Vizcarra; and of the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, to refer to the International Criminal Court (ICC) the investigation into the existence of crimes against humanity in Venezuela.
President Mauricio Macri on Thursday asked Argentines for patience in weathering an economic crisis this year and pledged to increase social spending in the coming months, a day after reaching a US$ 57.1 billion deal with the International Monetary Fund.
The International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, speaking at a news conference in New York alongside Argentine Economy Minister Nicolas Dujovne, said IMF was “significantly frontloading” disbursements under the program adding the Argentine central bank had agreed as part of the deal to allow the peso currency to float freely and would only intervene in the foreign exchange market in extreme circumstances.
The International Monetary Fund staff and Argentina authorities have reached an agreement on a set of strengthened economic policies that will underpin the 36-month Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) approved on June 20, 2018.
President Mauricio Macri reaffirmed, once again, “Argentina's legitimate and imprescriptible sovereign rights over the Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and their surrounding maritime spaces”, in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.
The resignation of Luis Caputo to the Presidency of the Central Bank of Argentina (BCRA), which has been reflected with surprise by the international media, occurs amid the trip of the Argentine President, Mauricio Macri, to New York to attend the Assembly General of the UN and with the mission of restoring the confidence of the international market in the Argentine economy. His predecessor, Guido Sandleris, receives a Central Bank when it is about to close an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The governor of Argentina's central bank, Luis Caputo resigned on Tuesday for personal reasons, the bank said in a statement, a surprise announcement in the midst of the country's talks with the IMF that sent the peso tumbling. Former finance minister Caputo has only held the role since June and is the second Argentine central bank president to resign this year. Argentina's peso currency slid 4.65% to open at 39.15 per U.S. dollar after the announcement, traders said.
President Mauricio Macri said on Monday that Argentina was close to a deal with the International Monetary Fund to bolster a US$ 50 billion credit line, while a government source said US$ 3-US$ 5 billion in additional funds could be announced this week.