Argentine President Mauricio Macri said a revised agreement with the International Monetary Fund will help shore up investor confidence in the nation after a currency rout pushed South America’s second-largest economy into recession, Bloomberg News reported. “We are working with the IMF and we are going to present something that will bring confidence,” Macri said in an interview with Bloomberg TV in New York.

Cardboard box-maker Smurfit Kappa has decided to deconsolidate its troubled Venezuelan operations from its balance sheet, after losing control of the unit to the local government, which will result in the writedown of its €60 million of net assets, The Irish Times reported. The move comes a month after the Caracas government decided to seize Smurfit Kappa Carton de Venezuela (SKCV) for 90 days amid complaints about prices that the company was charging for its products in an alleged abuse of its dominant market position – at a time when the country is grappling with hyperinflation.

A Rio de Janeiro appeals court has determined that billions of dollars in fines owed to regulators by Brazil’s Oi SA will be included in the company’s bankruptcy recovery package, a ruling showed on Wednesday. Oi, Brazil’s largest fixed line telecom company, entered bankruptcy in 2016, and in late 2017 creditors approved a plan to convert billions of dollars of debt into fresh equity, Reuters reported.

Brazil's state-run oil giant Petróleo Brasileiro SA aims to raise output as much as 10 percent to around 2.3 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2019 and cut net debt by $10 billion (7.62 billion pounds), Chief Financial Officer Rafael Grisolia told Reuters. The world's most indebted oil company is on course to reduce debt to $69 billion by the end of this year despite falling short of its $21 billion asset sales target, Grisolia told Reuters in an interview in New York late Friday.

Brazil’s Natura Cosmeticos SA recently approached Avon Products Inc. about a takeover, according to people familiar with the matter. The companies aren’t in serious talks and Avon, which has received other expressions of interest, is focused on turning itself around and reviving its shares, one of the people said. Following years of decline in its once-formidable direct-sales business, Avon had a market value as of Monday’s close of just $900 million, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Fifty years of currency crises from Chile to Indonesia signal a bleak outlook for Argentina and President Mauricio Macri -- a deep recession followed by political upheaval. Countries that have seen their currency decline by more than 40 percent in a year have typically suffered economic contractions of more than 6 percent the year after. Argentina’s peso is down 53 percent in the past 12 months, Bloomberg News reported.

Argentina’s economy minister is to present austerity-driven budget measures to congress on Monday as the country tries to shore up support from the IMF and calm investors after a plunge in the value of the peso, the Financial Times reported. Allies of President Mauricio Macri said they were confident the plans would be backed, including by some moderates in the opposition. The president hopes to restore market confidence in his wounded administration after renewed currency volatility. The peso has fallen 20 per cent since late August.

China agreed to several small oil deals with Venezuela this week but gave no public confirmation that it would extend more loans to the cash-strapped country during a rare visit by President Nicolás Maduro to Beijing. Venezuela faces a stiff payments schedule over the next two months of about $2bn to bondholders, some of whom have debt secured against US-based refiner Citgo, and in compensation to western oil companies for past nationalisations in Venezuela.

Just days after panic swept through Argentine financial markets, some investors see pockets of opportunity but they also face the difficulty of trading in an environment distinguished by the evaporation of price liquidity, the Financial Times reported. Against this backdrop even small trades can move market prices sharply, making any substantial changes to a portfolio difficult to implement.

Brazilian infrastructure operator Invepar should focus on refinancing its substantial debt load instead of pursuing an immediate sale, the chief executive of pension fund Previ, one of Invepar’s key investors, said on Monday. Speaking on the sidelines of a pension fund event in Florianopolis, Previ’s José Mauricio Coelho said Invepar may issue new debt or extend maturities on its current debt, instead of looking for an investor to take control of the company and inject cash, Reuters reported. Invepar has lost 1.2 billion reais ($291 million) over the last two years.