Argentina

Less than a year ago, Argentina was on the brink of a balance of payments crisis after 12 years of populist rule. But dollars have flooded into the economy since the business-friendly government of Mauricio Macri took over last December, with central bank reserves last week surging above $40bn, the Financial Times reported.

Argentina’s shrinking economy and high unemployment are triggering ever-louder grumbling from its citizens, posing problems for President Mauricio Macri in a country where economic discontent has undone previous leaders, The Wall Street Journal reported. The difficulty for Mr. Macri is that he promised it wouldn’t be like this. When he took office in December vowing to slash inflation and jump-start the economy, he told Argentines they could look forward to a brighter future in the second half of this year.

The case of $67,000 stolen from Argentine Vice President Gabriela Michetti’s house should have ended when her bodyguard was arrested, Bloomberg News reported. Instead, prosecutors have shifted to tracing the money’s origin, making her a public example of the challenges President Mauricio Macri’s faces in weaning the country off its reliance on cash, an age-old system that in many instances hides tax evasion. Elected last November on a vow to reverse 12 years of leftist populism, Macri ended currency controls, reformed the statistics bureau and settled a toxic dispute over bond payments.

For Mauricio Macri, there may be a silver lining to the Panama Papers scandal that has dogged Argentina’s new president since he was accused of ties with offshore shell companies earlier this year, the Financial Times reported. Mr Macri is hoping that his plan for a massive tax amnesty will be helped by increasingly tough conditions globally for tax dodgers, as he attempts to restore normality to what is one of the world’s most financially volatile countries.

Argenova, the Argentinian subsidiary of troubled multinational Pescanova, is working with a legal team to prepare for filing for insolvency as soon as possible, reported Faro de Vigo. However, with all executive functions taken away from president and chairman Manuel Fernandez de Sousa, and the board of directors, it is unclear who will make the decision to enter proceedings. Deloitte, proposed by Spanish regulator CNMV as administrator to oversee the group's bankruptcy, will not take over until Thursday this week.

Argentina’s opposition-dominated Congress on Thursday approved legislation that would double the cost of laying off private and public employees over the next six months, handing President Mauricio Macri his first legislative setback since taking office, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Macri, who said the law would spook investors and destroy jobs, is expected to veto it on Friday. The setback for Mr. Macri comes as pollsters say Argentines are increasingly worried about the prospect of losing their jobs.

Argentina could issue $30bn in debt this year, as other issuers seek to mimic the government's success in returning to international capital markets with a blockbuster bond sale last month. First out of the gates will be Argentina’s provincial governments, expected to issue at least $4bn this year, the Financial Times reported. They hope to take advantage of rekindled investor interest in a country isolated from bond markets by a protracted creditor dispute, which was triggered by a 2001 default on almost $100bn of debt. “Argentine debt represents an extraordinary opportunity.

After summoning 100 representatives of Argentina’s business elite to the presidential residence this week, Mauricio Macri praised the few that had recently announced investments. The rest, he implied, were not doing their bit for the country, the Financial Times reported. The centre-right leader has implemented a barrage of economic reforms since taking office in December, including fixing a decade-long creditor dispute that enabled Argentina’s blockbuster return to international capital markets with a $16.5bn debt issue.

Argentina returned to the international bond markets for the first time in 15 years on Monday as it winds down a long-running battle with investors following its 2001 default, the Irish Times reported. Argentina announced a $10 billion-$15 billion bond, whose proceeds will help pay off the holders of its defaulted bonds who had rejected the payment terms of the country’s debt restructuring. New President Mauricio Macri wasted little time after taking office in December in agreeing terms with most of the holdouts, led by US hedge funds Elliott Management and Aurelius Capital.

A US appeals court has cleared the way for Argentina to raise as much as $15bn to pay holdout creditors, enabling the Latin American sovereign to re-enter international capital markets after more than a decade on the sidelines, the Financial Times reported. The decision from the US District Court of Appeals in Manhattan affirmed a judge’s ruling to lift an injunction that barred Argentina from paying certain creditors, which subsequently pushed it into default in 2014.