Argentina

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.

Argentina's monthly inflation rate likely edged down to 12% in March, analysts polled by Reuters estimated, which would mark a third straight month of deceleration for prices and a boost for new libertarian President Javier Milei's economic reform drive, Reuters reported. The South American country has the world's highest inflation with the annualized rate running over 275%, which hurts consumer spending power and dampens the economy. Milei has made curbing prices a focus via an austerity package of cuts.

Argentina’s economy shrank in the fourth quarter, consolidating a full year of negative growth, even before incoming President Javier Milei slashed spending as part of his shock therapy, Bloomberg News reported. Gross domestic product fell 1.9% compared to the period between July and September, according to official government data published Wednesday. Activity contracted 1.4% from a year earlier, slightly less the median estimate of a 1.5% decline of economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

Argentina’s central bank isn’t offering put options for peso bonds the government is selling this week in a record debt swap, a move that’s discouraged private banks from participating in the deal, Bloomberg News reported. The decision not to include puts — pledges to buy back bonds if they fall below a certain price — is key because they’re one of the main tools to persuade banks to swap peso bonds maturing this year for new notes that stretch between 2025 and 2028, the people said.

Argentina is starting a record swap of peso-denominated debt Monday in a bid to roll over almost all of its 2024 maturities into the next four years, providing a temporary respite to President Javier Milei’s government, Bloomberg News reported. The economy ministry published late Friday a list with the bonds it seeks to repurchase and sell, saying it will receive offers from investors until Tuesday 3 p.m. in Buenos Aires (2 p.m. ET). The swap may amount to 55 trillion pesos ($65 billion), according to Juan Manuel Truffa, partner and director at local consulting firm Outlier.

Argentina's industrial output slid 12.4% in January from a year earlier, the second straight month it has plunged in double digits amid a tough austerity and cost-cutting drive since new libertarian President Javier Milei took office in December, Reuters reported. The decline was the eighth straight month falling, official data showed Wednesday, amid a prolonged economic contraction and soaring inflation running at over 250%, that has badly hurt consumer spending power and consumption.