Argentina

Argentina's inflation likely hovered around 30% in December, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni said on Wednesday, when asked by a reporter about studies showing monthly inflation reaching nearly that level, Reuters reported. "We still don't have the official data, but we understand that the figure was around the one you are referring to," Adorni told the reporter during a press conference. If confirmed, that would take annual inflation in the South American country to over 200% in 2023, the highest in more than three decades. The official figure will only be released on Jan.

Argentina’s President Javier Milei is considering issuing a perpetual bond to pay a $16 billion lawsuit award stemming from the nationalization of state-run energy company YPF, Bloomberg News reported. Swinging between political jabs and policy intentions, Milei suggested that the government would issue the bond without a fixed maturity while charging Argentines the “Kicillof tax,” named after Buenos Aires Governor Axel Kicillof who spearheaded efforts to nationalize YPF in 2012.

Argentina’s central bank changed its benchmark tool for monetary policy Monday, replacing four-week notes with one-day transactions in a bid to lower borrowing costs, Bloomberg News reported. The monetary authority will no longer auction its 28-day Leliq notes, which until now were used to determine its policy rate. Instead, the 1-day repo notes that currently pay an interest rate of 100% will serve as the bank’s new policy benchmark. Monday’s move aims to free up pesos for Argentine banks and strengthen demand for treasury notes.

Argentina’s radical, anarcho-capitalist President Javier Milei may turn out to be pretty conventional. That comes with good and bad news for investors, the Wall Street Journal reported. Late on Tuesday, the country’s new government announced its first set of economic measures since Milei was sworn in. Economy Minister Luis Caputo said the peso’s official exchange rate against the U.S. dollar would be roughly halved and that public spending would be drastically reduced by cutting energy and transportation subsidies, canceling public works and reducing transfers to provinces.

Argentina's economy has many problems, and dealing with a mountain of debt repayments over the next two years could determine whether the new government's economic road map succeeds, Reuters reported. The country's total sovereign debt exceeds $400 billion, some $110 billion of which is owed to the International Monetary Fund and to holders of restructured, privately-held eurobonds. With central bank reserves in the red by more than $10 billion and little chance of tapping the market, the country has some $16 billion in debt payments coming due next year.

Argentina's new government will lay out its economic "shock" therapy plans on Tuesday afternoon in a bid to rein in triple-digit inflation and rebuild depleted foreign currency reserves, with markets and ordinary Argentines on tenterhooks about the impact, Reuters reported. Economy Minister Luis Caputo will announce the measures after markets close around 5 p.m. (2000 GMT), the spokesman for libertarian President Javier Milei, who took office on Sunday, told a news conference.

Argentina's consumer prices likely spiked around 12% in November alone, a Reuters poll of analysts showed on Monday, which will be the first monthly inflation data under the government of new libertarian President Javier Milei, Reuters reported. The South American country, which swore in its new government on Sunday, is battling triple-digit annual inflation already at 143% and climbing fast. Milei has said he will fight "tooth and nail" to bring inflation down. The Reuters poll of 22 analysts gave a median estimate of the CPI rising 11.9% in November, up from 8.3% in October.

Argentina’s central bank limited the amount of foreign currency the nation’s commercial lenders can hold, in a push to discourage US dollar hoarding ahead of an expected devaluation by President-elect Javier Milei after his Sunday inauguration, Bloomberg News reported. The country’s central bank said that holdings may not be greater than the lowest amount recorded between Oct. 12 and Dec. 6, according to a rule published on its website Thursday. The measure — announced on the last business day of the current administration — goes into effect immediately and is valid until the end of the year.

Argentine President-elect Javier Milei arrived in the U.S. on Monday for a trip to New York and Washington that will include meetings with the International Monetary Fund and Biden administration officials, as well as former President Bill Clinton, as he looks to shore up support for the nation’s crisis-torn economy, Bloomberg News reported. Milei will meet with President Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and US Treasury officials, according to press offices from the US and Argentina.