The International Monetary Fund’s executive board approved a $7.5 billion disbursement to Argentina on Wednesday, extending a financial lifeline to the cash-strapped government ahead of a tight presidential race, Bloomberg News reported. The cash payments are part of a refinanced $44 billion program, the lender’s largest, that endured months of negotiations amid political uncertainty and wrangling over economic policy.

Brazil has submitted a proposal to Argentina aimed at securing Chinese yuan guarantees for Brazilian exports to the neighboring country in an initiative involving state-run lender Banco do Brasil , Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said yesterday, Reuters reported. Banco do Brasil under the proposal would oversee the conversion of yuan back into Brazilian reais, based on provided guarantees, Haddad told a press conference in Johannesburg on the sidelines of the BRICS nation summit.

Argentine Economy Minister Sergio Massa said on Tuesday that he expects the International Monetary Fund (IMF) board to approve the latest reviews of its huge loan program on Wednesday, unlocking $7.5 billion the embattled country desperately needs, Reuters reported. The board green light would come after the South American nation reached a staff-level agreement with the IMF in July to unlock the funds and complete the combined fifth and sixth reviews of its struggling $44 billion loan program.

Brazil’s lower house of congress approved new fiscal rules on Tuesday, finalizing legislation meant to shore up public finances and assuage market concerns about President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s spending plans, Bloomberg News reported. Lawmakers voted 379-64 in favor of the fiscal plan, which will be sent to Lula for his signature. The bill’s passage will pave the way for Lula’s administration to align its 2024 budget plan with the new rules.

Chile’s economy shank less than forecast in the second quarter as growth in the mining industry softened the blow from a prolonged retail slump on the eve of interest rate cuts, Bloomberg News reported. Gross domestic product fell 0.3% in the April-June period from the prior three months, less than the -0.6% median forecast of analysts in a Bloomberg survey. From a year ago, the economy dropped 1.1%, the central bank reported Friday. Meanwhile, GDP growth in the first quarter was revised to 0.4%, half of the original 0.8% increase.

Argentina's economy ministry will freeze domestic crude oil prices at $56 per barrel until the end of October after an agreement with the industry, to help tamp down triple-digit inflation, two oil sector sources said on Friday, Reuters reported. The agreement came after meetings on Thursday between Economy Minister Sergio Massa and executives from oil companies such as YPF and Vista. The government had also announced a freeze on domestic fuel pump prices.

Prosecutors in Colombia on Thursday announced criminal indictments against 60 people, including dozens of former government officials, on graft charges tied to the transnational corruption scandal involving disgraced Brazilian contractor Odebrecht, the Wall Street Journal reported. The charges represent more fallout from the extensive bribery network that Odebrecht in 2016 admitted to creating in a dozen countries, from Latin America to Africa, to bribe politicians and government officials for lucrative infrastructure contracts.

When global inflation surged in 2021, many of Latin America’s central bankers were the first to raise interest rates, moving months before the Federal Reserve began tightening. Recalling how hyperinflation topped 3,000% in some countries in the 1980s, central-bank economists from Brasília to Lima to Mexico City knew all too well the damage that soaring prices could cause. Now, Latin America is again at the forefront of the cycle, cutting rates as inflation comes back down, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Negotiators and officials representing Venezuela are opposing a court-ordered auction of shares in a parent of oil refiner Citgo Petroleum to pay creditors claiming more than $10 billion from expropriations and debt defaults, Reuters reported Some 20 creditors with arbitration awards or lawsuits against Venezuela and its state oil company PDVSA on Monday asked a federal court in Delaware to register their cases so they can participate in the October-scheduled auction. The auction puts priority on when claims were filed.

Brazil's Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said the government was surprised by the central bank's delay in cutting interest rates, noting that there were already reasons for a reduction before the easing cycle began earlier this month, Reuters reported. In a podcast interview with journalist Reinaldo Azevedo, recorded on Friday and aired on Monday, he stressed that the strong economic performance of the first quarter was boosted by the farm sector, and said that he had been indicating a significant slowdown ahead.