As long lines outside shops with mostly bare shelves are increasingly common in Cuba, and the government has indeed signaled that things are going from bad to worse, Havana is blasting president Donald Trump's administration for the hardship and misery.
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.
Argentina has requested a waiver from the International Monetary Fund as some data would not be available in time for the fund's third review this week of US$ 56.3 billion in standby financing agreed last year, a Treasury spokesman said on Wednesday.
Sales of new cars in Argentina collapsed by almost 50% in the first quarter of 2019, the Association of Automobile Dealers of Argentina (ACARA) said Monday. Sales fell by 49.5% in the year-on-year comparison, with purchases down 50.4% in March year-on-year too, said ACARA.
The Argentine Peso slid to all-time lows against the dollar as concerns about inflation, weak growth and October's presidential election weighed. The currency has lost 14% so far this year and the weakness raises fears of a repeat of the currency crisis of 2018 when the Peso lost half its value against the dollar.
In Uruguay, the dollar traded at noon on the state bank Banco Republica (Brou) board at $ 33.20 for the purchase and $ 34.60 for the sale, 45 cents above the close price on Tuesday. On the board of private exchanges, the currency to the public came to sell at $ 34.80 and $ 34.90.
Argentina’s central bank wants to license market makers to help stabilize its embattled peso currency when the Treasury starts newly announced dollar sales in April. The bank hopes the market makers, dealers who agree to buy and sell at set prices, would bolster liquidity in the exchange market to help avoid the sharp gyrations the peso has suffered in recent weeks when it hit a record low of 42.5 pesos per dollar in thin trading.
Argentina’s struggling currency hit a record low against the dollar on Thursday, weakening over 4% to close at 42.5 pesos per dollar, a challenge for President Mauricio Macri as he looks to right the economy ahead of elections in October.
Argentina's economic activity fell 2.6% in 2018 versus the previous year, government statistics agency Indec said on Wednesday, underscoring the turmoil that dragged the country into recession last year.
Italy's economy tipped into recession at the end of last year, according to latest figures. In the final three months of 2018, the economy shrank by 0.2%, following a 0.1% decline in the third quarter, the Istat statistics office said. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the contraction was likely to continue into 2019.