The World Bank is poised to announce a $12 billion financing package for Argentina on Friday, supplementing the International Monetary Fund's expected approval of a $20 billion Argentina loan deal, a source with knowledge of the plan said, Reuters reported. The Inter-American Development Bank also is expected to announce its own Argentina financing package, a second source said after Argentina's central bank announced on Friday that it will ease its foreign exchange market controls, allowing the peso to freely fluctuate within a moving band of between 1,000 and 1,400 pesos per dollar.

Argentina's mortgage market, for years almost non-existent due to spiraling triple-digit inflation and high borrowing costs, is starting to show signs of coming back to life under the pro-market reforms of libertarian President Javier Milei, Reuters reported. Monthly new mortgages in Buenos Aires province, home to 40% of the country's population, hit the highest level since 2018 at the start of the year, data from the local college of notaries show. Numbers were up nearly 500% in February year-on-year.

A group of Venezuela bondholders have found a path to be repaid through the auction of the country’s U.S.-based oil refiner, Citgo Petroleum, and potentially avoid the risk of a separate adverse court ruling, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The leading bid for Citgo’s U.S.

Government-controlled Banco de Brasilia (BRB) only agreed to acquire the healthiest and most strategically relevant assets from fellow lender Banco Master after months of negotiations, BRB CEO Paulo Henrique Costa said in a Tuesday interview, Reuters reported. The agreement, announced on Friday and subject to review by the central bank, is still under due diligence that could eventually bring down the negotiated price of 2 billion reais ($350 million), to be paid over up to six years, he added.

Argentina and the International Monetary Fund may be on the home stretch over a $20 billion new program, but the deal has so far failed to dispel traders' anxiety and a haze of uncertainty around the outlook for the country's peso currency, Reuters reported. The South American nation, under libertarian President Javier Milei, is trying to rebuild investor confidence and bolster depleted foreign currency reserves after years of overspending that left the grains producer locked out of global markets and battling to stabilize its finances.

Nearly one-fifth of the population of San Pedro, Argentina about 16,000 people, would invest in RainbowEx, piling tens of millions of dollars into the cryptocurrency exchange. Joining RainbowEx was easy, even for crypto newbies. First, they downloaded the app from a website — it never appeared on Apple or Google’s app stores. Then, they visited one of the local private lending institutions called financieras. A clerk there would convert Argentine pesos into Tether, a cryptocurrency pegged to the U.S. dollar.

Argentina’s future program with the International Monetary Fund will be for $20 billion, while executive board approval could take weeks, Economy Minister Luis Caputo said at a conference Thursday, Bloomberg News reported. Caputo stopped short of announcing a formal staff-level agreement, but it’s the most concrete detail of the program after several months of negotiations between the IMF and President Javier Milei’s administration.

Brazil’s central bank lowered its economic growth forecast for this year, signaling further interest rate hikes will weigh on activity as policymakers fight inflation that’s speeding up further above target, Bloomberg News reported. The bank expects gross domestic product to expand 1.9% this year, down from the previous of estimate of 2.1%, according to its monetary policy report published Thursday. By comparison, analysts surveyed by the monetary authority see 1.98% growth in 2025.

Brazil’s central bank said it was important to signal that its cycle of interest rate hikes will continue in the face of an adverse inflation outlook, according to the minutes to its March 18-19 policy meeting, Bloomberg News reported. Local food prices are high and can also drive up costs in other sectors, while services inflation has accelerated in recent readings, policymakers wrote in the minutes to the meeting. Last week, they raised the benchmark Selic by a full percentage point to 14.25%, and signaled a smaller rise ahead.

Brazilian airline Gol said on Monday it had entered an exit financing commitment with certain investors, without naming them, as it eyed exiting chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, Reuters reported. Under the deal, the parties have committed to purchasing up to $1.25 billion of the $1.9 billion debt instruments to be issued as part of the process, which will be used to repay obligations under a debtor-in-possession financing. Read more.