Argentina

President Javier Milei will meet face-to-face with the head of the International Monetary Fund in Italy this week, with Argentina claiming it has cleared a key hurdle as it seeks fresh funds to eventually lift capital controls, Bloomberg News reported. The libertarian leader’s talks Friday with Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit will take place a day after the Fund’s executive board votes on its latest review of the crisis-prone South American nation’s $43 billion program.

Argentina risks struggling to service some of its debt if it’s forced to pay out $1.5 billion in damages a UK court awarded to investors last year, lawyers for the South American nation have warned, Bloomberg News reported. Hedge funds including Palladian Partners LP last year won a UK High Court ruling that Argentina must compensate investors for losses in the country’s growth-linked securities after it changed the method of calculating gross domestic product.

Argentines are rushing to banks to apply for mortgages as interest-rate reductions since President Javier Milei took power begin to wake the home-loan market from a six-year slumber, Bloomberg News reported. “People are very anxious, inquiries overflowed our communication channels and we are overwhelmed,” Daniel Tillard, president of Banco Nacion, the country’s largest state-owned lender, said in an interview. The bank announced it will disburse some $4 billion of mortgages over the next four years to 40,000 potential home owners.

Argentina’s monthly inflation rate eased sharply to a single-digit rate in April for the first time in half a year, data released Tuesday showed, a closely watched indicator that bolsters President Javier Milei’s severe austerity program aimed at fixing the country’s troubled economy, the Associated Press reported.

Prices in Argentina are climbing, despite positive signs of a deceleration, with the embattled South American country's annual inflation rate set to edge closer to 300% when the government reveals the latest data on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Shopkeepers and consumers said that although monthly inflation readings have slowed since a peak over 25% in December, the change has yet to be fully felt on the ground. The inflation rate is set to edge back under single digits in April for the first time in six months.

The International Monetary Fund’s staff signed off on the eighth review or Argentina’s $44 billion program, giving a key endorsement to President Javier Milei’s shock therapy six months into his government, Bloomberg News reported. The deal, if backed by the IMF’s executive board, will give Argentina access to nearly $800 million, according to an IMF statement on Monday. The cash will allow Milei to honor upcoming debt repayments to the Washingon-based lender, buying him time to decide whether to continue with the current program brokered by his predecessor or negotiate a new one.

Argentina’s privately-run power producers will reject an offer by the government to settle a debt that’s mushroomed to about $2 billion, Pampa Energia SA Chief Executive Officer Gustavo Mariani said, Bloomberg News reported. The producers — led by Pampa and Central Puerto SA, which together supply about 30% of Argentina’s energy — want better terms for the debt, which began to accumulate late last year when President Javier Milei’s government stopped paying them as part of a broader effort to shrink its budget deficit.

Argentina cut its key interest rate for the third time in three weeks as officials bet on a sustained slowdown in consumer prices and race to shrink the central bank’s interest-bearing liabilities, Bloomberg News reported. Policymakers lowered the benchmark rate to 50% from 60%, according to a statement released Thursday that cited a significant easing in price pressures over recent months. Officials have cut rates five times from an initial 133% since President Javier Milei took power in December.

Argentina corn farmers had high hopes for this season’s harvest after near-perfect weather conditions ended years of drought. A record crop would also bode well for President Javier Milei’s plan to turn around the nation’s embattled economy, Bloomberg News reported. Now a bug is getting in the way. Corn farmers are seeing their fields ravaged by a plague of leafhopper insects. The infestation is slashing production potential for the world’s third-largest exporter of corn just as harvesting gathers speed.

Argentina’s central bank cut its main interest rate for the third time since President Javier Milei took office as investors bet on a fresh inflation slowdown in the South American nation, Bloomberg News reported. Policymakers lowered rates to 70% from 80% on Thursday, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The drop was later confirmed by a central bank statement and communicated to traders on the local Siopel system. Borrowing costs have fallen from 133% in December, when the reference instrument was the Leliq note.