The International Monetary Fund said on Friday that Argentina is current in its payment obligations, and the government said it made a $2.7 billion payment to the fund using its existing stock of the IMF's reserve assets, and Chinese currency, Reuters reported. Argentina's economy ministry said through a spokesman the June payments were made "without using dollars" but the country's holdings of the fund's special-drawing rights (SDRs) and Chinese yuan. The operation, which depleted Argentina's $1.6 billion in SDRs, underscores how desperate the country's dollar position has become.

Argentina will make scheduled payments totaling some $1.9 billion to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday, an economy ministry source said, Reuters reported. The South American country is in talks with the IMF to revamp its $44 billion loan program with the lender as it battles with dwindling foreign currency reserves, a weak peso currency and annual inflation over 100%. Argentina has $2.7 billion due to the fund this month alone.

Argentina and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have a $44 billion dilemma, with the two sides set to meet for crunch talks to revamp the country's huge, wobbling debt deal, key to avoiding default on billions in looming debt payments, Reuters reported. The South American country, a serial defaulter that has struggled for years with inflation and currency crises, struck a $57 billion loan deal with the IMF in 2018, which failed and was replaced last year with a new $44 billion program.

Argentina's annual inflation rate topped 114% in May, but in a silver lining for the embattled South American country the monthly rise came in well below analyst forecasts and posted a surprise slowdown versus a peak the month before, Reuters reported. The monthly rise in the consumer price index (CPI) clocked in at 7.8%, the country's statistics agency said on Wednesday, well below analyst estimates of an 8.9% increase and under the 8.4% posted in April, the largest monthly rise in decades.

Argentina's monthly inflation rate likely sped up to 8.8% in May, according to analysts polled by Reuters, as prices in the South America country continue to soar despite a cooling trend in other countries around the region, Reuters reported. Argentina is battling soaring inflation likely to end the year near 150%, sapping people's spending power, pummeling the peso currency and pulling the rug out from under the ruling Peronist coalition ahead of October elections. That's one of the highest rates in the world and the fastest annual reading for the major grains exporter since 1991.

A deal to rescue one of the biggest suppliers of soybean meal fed to livestock herds around the world is at risk of falling apart because of court delays and Argentina’s worst drought in living memory, Bloomberg News reported. The bankruptcy of Vicentin SAIC more than three years ago upended oilseed trading in Argentina, the top exporting nation of meal and of soy oil used in food and biofuels. After a tumultuous default that featured a botched nationalization and accusations of fraud by international lenders, Vicentin finally seemed to have secured its future.

Uruguayan fintech dLocal, the South American country's first unicorn, saw its shares plummet on Friday, after Argentine news outlet Infobae published an article saying the government was investigating it for a possible fraud of at least $400 million, Reuters reported. Citing unnamed official sources, Infobae said the Argentina government was investigating the fintech for "improper manouevers" and transfers abroad that would constitute a fraud, with most of its income coming from services sold to subsidiaries of the same firm.

Argentina's government is bolstering its economic defenses as it battles runaway inflation that hit 109% in April, fast draining central bank foreign currency reserves, a weakening peso and simmering market fears of a sharp-shock devaluation, Reuters reported. The economy ministry announced a package of measures on Sunday including new interest rate hikes, more central bank intervention in currency markets and fast-tracked deals with creditors after inflation overshot all forecasts last week. An official source told Reuters the rate hike would be 600 basis points, bringing the rate up to 97%.

Argentina will unveil a set of emergency measures in a bid to stem additional currency losses, including a large increase to its key interest rate, as inflation spirals out of control in the run up to presidential elections, according to officials at the Economy Ministry and the central bank, Bloomberg News reported. The monetary authority will raise its benchmark rate by 600 basis points to 97% on Monday while boosting intervention in the foreign exchange market, the officials said, asking not to be named before measures are formally announced by Economy Minister Sergio Massa.