Argentina

A strengthening dollar pushed Argentina to raise its policy interest rate 3 percentage points on Friday to 30.25 per cent, underscoring the mounting pressure on emerging market currencies. The rate rise ended a week in which Argentina’s central bank spent about $3bn to support the currency, which has lost more than a quarter of its dollar value over the past year, the Financial Times reported.

The Argentine government rebuffed an investor proposal that it should request a flexible credit line from the International Monetary Fund to shore up the nation’s finances, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter, Bloomberg News reported. The proposal was discussed with Finance Minister Luis Caputo and his team the week of March 4 at private meetings on the sidelines of a larger gathering of about 50 investors in New York, according to the people, who asked not to be named because the talks were private.

You'd think that steering a country away from the brink of economic catastrophe might buy a young administration some slack, but not in Argentina, where tolerance for anything short of miracle-making runs thin, a Bloomberg View reported. So maybe it's no surprise that less than two years after taking office and announcing a 21st-century Marshall Plan, President Mauricio Macri is struggling not just to fix South America's second-largest market, but to salvage his career as well.

Argentina sold 100-year bonds barely a year after settling a protracted legal dispute tied to a $95 billion default, Bloomberg News reported. With the $2.75 billion sale, the government of South America’s second-largest economy joins Mexico, Ireland and the U.K. in issuing debt that matures over a century, which is often particularly attractive to insurers and pension funds seeking to lock in long-term returns. Argentina, for its part, is taking advantage of historically low borrowing costs to finance the budget and pay off debt that’s maturing in the next few years.

Argentinian President Mauricio Macri’s reform efforts have won approval from the world’s biggest emerging-market bond investor, Bloomberg News reported. Franklin Templeton Chief Investment Officer Michael Hasenstab boosted holdings in Argentina in the $40.4 billion Templeton Global Bond Fund that he runs to 4.5 percent in the first quarter. The investment has propelled the Latin American country to the sixth spot in the fund’s country holdings. Hasenstab was encouraged by reform efforts from Argentina’s new president, he said in a research note published in January.

For a quarter century, one man ruled the Rio Parana, the mighty Mississippi of Argentina. His name is Omar Suarez. Along the Parana, the nation’s pipeline for key exports including soybeans, corn and wheat, he is better known as El Caballo: a hard-charging horse. Little moved down the river unless Suarez, a union boss, received tribute, authorities say. For crews and companies alike, El Caballo epitomized the culture of corruption that has held back Argentina’s economy for decades, Bloomberg News reported. Today, the story of El Caballo is, in a way, playing out across the country.

Argentina's President Mauricio Macri said on Thursday he would annul an agreement his government reached to resolve a 15-year-old debt the country's postal service incurred when it was owned by Macri's father, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Macri spoke after a federal prosecutor asked a judge to open an investigation into him and Communications Minister Oscar Aguad earlier this week.

A prosecutor asked to investigate Argentine President Mauricio Macri on Tuesday over a deal to resolve debt the country's postal service incurred with the government when it was owned by Macri's father, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. A judge will decide whether or not to open an investigation, which could hurt center-right Macri's party in congressional elections later this year. Earlier on Tuesday, Cabinet Chief Marcos Peña asked for an independent audit of the deal to resolve the debt and denied any wrongdoing by Macri's government.

Arturo Méndez heaved a sigh of relief after slapping about $300,000 in hundred dollar bills on the table to pay for a house. Carrying all that cash around the streets of Buenos Aires was now someone else’s problem. “Why couldn’t I have just got a mortgage like in any normal country?” asks Mr Méndez rhetorically — well aware that affordable mortgages scarcely exist in Argentina thanks to its chronically volatile economy. As a result, most are obliged to pay for their homes upfront, and often in dollars because of the historic instability of the peso, the Financial Times reported.

A judge indicted ex-President Cristina Kirchner on corruption charges involving public works and ordered millions of dollars of her assets to be frozen, escalating the legal troubles facing the former Argentine leader, The Wall Street Journal reported. Investigative Judge Julián Ercolini approved trying Mrs. Kirchner, along with several former aides and a businessman, for alleged racketeering and administrative fraud in connection with road projects in her home Santa Cruz province.