Argentina will stick to a deal with the International Monetary Fund to gradually reduce the country’s budget deficit amid a surge in inflation, the country’s top economic official said on Monday, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Economy Minister Sergio Massa met with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva in Washington, D.C., and they said the IMF’s program with Argentina would remain unchanged. Ms. Georgieva said she welcomed Mr. Massa’s “strong commitment and drive to achieve the goals of the program.” Mr.
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Argentina's government will launch three measures in the coming days aimed at restricting imports and preserving the central bank's dwindling foreign currency reserves, a source told Reuters on Tuesday. The measures come as new data on Monday showed a trade deficit in July of $437 million, the second deficit in a row for Latin America's third-largest economy.
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Argentine Economy Minister Sergio Massa tapped veteran economist Gabriel Rubinstein as secretary of economic planning, to help craft the policy response to a currency slump and the fastest inflation in three decades, Bloomberg News reported. Rubinstein, who has long run his own consulting firm, served on the central bank’s board during the administration of late President Nestor Kirchner in 2005, among other government roles. Massa, a career politician, was sworn in earlier this month.
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Argentina’s new Economy Minister Sergio Massa pledged to stop printing money that helps fuel runaway inflation, outlining his strategy to turn around the country’s deepening crisis, Bloomberg News reported. Massa rolled out his economic roadmap Wednesday night after being sworn in by President Alberto Fernandez as the third such minister in a month. Massa’s measures also focused on boosting exports, reducing the country’s fiscal deficit and increasing the central bank’s dwindling reserves.
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With inflation hurtling toward triple digits and, economists say, just a policy mistake or two away from setting the stage for hyperinflation, Argentina's central bank is desperately trying to avert a peso devaluation that would only trigger another wave of price hikes, Bloomberg News reported. Each day, the bank dispatches its traders to sell dollars and buy pesos that no one wants. On average, they’re burning through $60 million a day. For now, that’s kept the peso mostly steady in the primary foreign-exchange market.
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New Economy Minister Sergio Massa is preparing a set of measures to address one of Argentina’s key problems: a chronic shortage of dollars that has caused the U.S. currency to soar in parallel exchange markets, Bloomberg News reported. Massa, who was named by President Alberto Fernandez last week as the head of an expanded and empowered economy ministry, is expected to unveil incentives to exporters as well as policies to attract more foreign investment and to capture additional tourism revenue, according to people with knowledge of the plan.
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Argentine President Alberto Fernández, grappling with a political crisis within his ruling coalition, on Thursday fired the economy minister he appointed three weeks ago and replaced her with an influential lawmaker and ally as he faces economic turmoil, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Sergio Massa, currently president of the lower-house of Congress, will take over as economy minister, the president’s office said in a statement. The president also gave Mr.
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Argentina's central bank raised its benchmark interest rate by eight percentage points on Thursday to 60%, marking its seventh hike this year alone, in a renewed push to tame surging inflation as the country suffers a deepening economic crisis, Reuters reported. The so-called Leliq interest rate set by the country's monetary authority was previously at 52%, but analysts expect inflation could exceed 80% this year as the governing coalition is rocked by growing internal divisions over spending as well as the tightly-controlled exchange rate.
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The International Monetary Fund said Argentine officials reaffirmed the nation’s commitment to its $44 billion program with the fund, attempting to shore up confidence after the economy fell deeper into crisis, Bloomberg News reported. Argentine Economy Minister Silvina Batakis “agreed on the importance of decisive program implementation,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva tweeted Monday after meeting the new minister, who retweeted the comment.
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Argentina is loosening some currency restrictions for foreign tourists and importers as the peso’s unofficial exchange rates extended a month-long slump, Bloomberg reported. Importers of strategic sectors in the economy will have more access to dollars, the government said in a statement Thursday, as it seeks to avoid shortages of imported goods. Meanwhile, foreign tourists who are not residents in Argentina will be able to exchange as much as $5,000 for pesos at a more lucrative exchange rate than the official one, a measure aimed to shore up the local currency.