Argentina

Argentina's newly struck deal with the Paris Club lenders will bring some $248 million in debt relief for the embattled South American nation and push repayments back as far as 2028, according to a document shared with Reuters by officials. The country's government said earlier on Friday it had reached a deal to restructure the nearly $2 billion it owes the Paris Club of creditors, which counts the United States, Japan and Germany among its members. Repayments would start in December this year and continue until late 2028, the document showed.

Argentina’s next government needs to unwind currency controls and let the exchange rate trade freely, according to Buenos Aires Mayor Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, one of the main opposition leaders seen as a likely presidential contender next year, Bloomberg News reported. “You have to aim for that,” Larreta said in an interview on the sidelines of the C40 World Mayors Summit in Buenos Aires. “What you have to do and how fast depends on the situation. You’d have to see how much foreign reserves the central bank has when you take over.

Argentina's monthly inflation rate came in at 6.2% in September, the government's INDEC statistics agency said on Friday, slower than a month earlier and undershooting analyst forecasts of a 6.7% increase, a rare positive for the embattled economy, Reuters reported. Inflation in the 12 months through September hit 83%, as the South American country fights to rein in surging prices that are sapping people's wages and savings. Prices were up 66.1% in the first nine months of the year.

Argentina's economy minister Sergio Massa said on Thursday that he will meet Paris Club officials on Oct. 27 and 28 in France to wrap up negotiations over $2 billion in debt that the country owes to the creditor group, Reuters reported. Talks will include the repayment schedule and the interest rate for the loan from the creditors which include the governments of the United States, Germany and Italy. The Paris Club last year gave Argentina more time to repay the debt, which allowed Buenos Aires time to negotiate a revamp of its IMF program.

Argentina's inflation rate likely eased slightly in September to 6.7%, a Reuters poll of analysts showed, but remained stubbornly high overall, supporting forecasts that it could top 100% this year, the highest annual level since the early 1990s, Reuters reported. That monthly rate would be lower that a 7% price rise in August and a July peak of 7.4%. The South American country has been battling to bring down one of the world's highest inflation rates. The projections were made by 16 analysts surveyed by Reuters, with estimates ranging between 6.5% and 7%.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reached a staff-level agreement on Argentina's $44 billion extended fund facility arrangement, which should unlock nearly $4 billion in funds for the country, the lender said on Monday, Reuters reported. The approval, which needs to be ratified by the IMF executive board, would unlock $3.9 billion for the embattled South American nation, which is looking to rebuild reserves and tamp down spiraling inflation. Argentina, a major grains producer, struck a new IMF deal earlier this year to replace a huge failed program from 2018.

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.

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.

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.

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.