Argentina's Ministry of Agriculture suspended on Wednesday the registration of agricultural exports until further notice, it said in a statement, a move that traders said likely foreshadowed a steep increase in grains export tariffs.
Argentina is thought to be on the brink of falling into its ninth sovereign default, prompting some analysts to speculate whether the crisis-prone South American country might be tempted to accept funding from China.
Recession-hit Argentina's economy shrank by 2.1% in 2019, the state statistics institute said on Friday. The institute said the economy contracted by 0.3% in December compared to the same period in 2018.
The International Monetary Fund, as the lender of last resort, won’t offer a haircut on its Argentina loan after Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner called on the institution to take a loss.
The Financial Times dedicated on Monday an editorial to Argentina and its current strategy to avoid again defaulting by pressing on the IMF, and later on sovereign bondholders, for a significant haircut in its national debt approaching 90% of GDP. However, FT points out that “debt talks are unlikely to succeed without a strategy for economic revival”
Argentine vice-president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner insisted in her criticism of the IMF for the alleged violation of its statutes by awarding the previous Argentine administration of president Mauricio Macri a disproportionate credit, despite the fact the Fund rejected the accusation and ratified that no debt shaving is possible under its rules.
A smiling Pope Francis welcomed the new president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, to the Vatican on Friday morning and then spoke with him in a private audience for 45 minutes, signaling that good relations exist between the two leaders and suggesting that this could perhaps open the door for the pontiff’s first visit to his homeland since his election—though the president later said they did not discuss this.
He was considered the guru of Argentine electoral campaigns, the man who helped Mauricio Macri jump from president of one of the two most popular soccer teams in the country, to twice mayor/governor of the City of Buenos Aires and finally to occupy during four years the Pink House, Casa Rosada, defeating the hegemonic Peronist movement.
Former Argentine president Mauricio Macri has been appointed executive chairman of the FIFA Foundation, the organization founded by world football's governing body in 2018 to promote social change. But his nomination was received with a raft of criticisms by Argentine clubs and associations.
Argentine President Alberto Fernandez on Monday night confirmed that the national government had no plan to bail out Buenos Aires province, which has a payment due later this month on hard-currency provincial debt.