Argentina asked the International Monetary Fund for financing to help stem a five-month-rout in the peso that is sparking a surge in interest rates and threatening to derail the country’s economic recovery, Bloomberg News reported. “This will allow us to face the new global scenario and avoid a crisis like the ones we have faced before in our history," President Mauricio Macri said in a televised address Tuesday. The president didn’t state how much money was being requested but a person with direct knowledge of the talks said officials are seeking a flexible credit line worth $30 billion.

Count Argentina’s smaller companies among the victims of the three surprise interest-rate increases that are rippling through the economy, according to Federico Mac Dougall of First Corporate Finance Advisors SA, Bloomberg News reported. Mac Dougall, the Buenos Aires-based firm’s head of restructuring, said the number of distressed companies seeking his advice has tripled this year, pushing it to levels he hasn’t seen since 2003 following Argentina’s sovereign default.

Since his 2015 election, President Mauricio Macri has pushed to reconnect Argentina to the global financial system, after years of isolation. His approach — emphasizing lower tariffs, accurate economic data, trade pacts and the freer flow of capital — was largely aimed at coaxing foreign investment back to Argentina and ending the economic exile that followed the country’s default in 2001. But over the last week, Argentina has been reminded that when capital is free to flow in, it can also flow out, creating profound economic implications, the International New York Times reported.

An investment fund that’s seeking a payout from the Cuban government on more than $1.3 billion in defaulted debt and back interest has hired the lawyer who won a settlement for hedge funds in a long-running legal battle against Argentina, Bloomberg News reported. CRF I Ltd. contracted Matthew McGill, a partner with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, to represent it in its claim against Cuba “including potential litigation,” according to a letter from the firm provided to Bloomberg News by a fund investor.

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.