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.

Brazil’s central bank said it unanimously sees more restrictive interest rates ahead as the institution tries to calm investors following a split policy decision that exposed rifts among its board members, Bloomberg News reported. “In the end, it was unanimously concluded that a more contractionary and more cautious monetary policy was needed,” central bankers wrote in minutes to their May 7-8 rate decision, when they cut the benchmark Selic rate by a quarter-point to 10.5%.

Brazil’s central bank said more restrictive rates are needed to fulfill its commitment to hitting the inflation target, according to the minutes to its split decision on borrowing costs that rattled investors, Bloomberg News reported. “In the end, it was unanimously concluded that a more contractionary and more cautious monetary policy was needed,” policymakers wrote in minutes to their May 7-8 rate decision, when they cut the benchmark Selic rate by a quarter-point to 10.5%.

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.

Brazil Finance Minister Fernando Haddad rolled out a plan worth 50.9 billion reais ($9.9 billion) Thursday to help millions of people hit by floods in the nation’s south as investors keep a wary eye on public spending, Bloomberg News reported. The initial measures, which include subsidized credit from the federal government, will be directed to 3.5 million people including workers, social program beneficiaries and rural producers, as well as companies, states and municipalities, Haddad said.

Chile’s consumer prices rose more than forecast last month, underscoring the central bank’s caution over further interest rate cuts after it spearheaded reductions in Latin American over the past year, Bloomberg News reported. Prices increased 0.5% from March, above the 0.4% median estimate from analysts in a Bloomberg survey. The annual inflation rate rose to 4% from 3.7% in the chained series, the national statistics institute reported Wednesday.

Chile's central bank said in a report on Tuesday that the economy is broadly recovering, though some sectors have lagged and financial market depth has not yet returned to levels seen before the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reported. The bank pointed to the South American country's commercial, construction and real estate sectors as having fallen behind, which it said had elevated the possibility of defaults. "The external scenario continues to be the main source of risks for local financial stability," according to the bank.