News of economy ministry

2022 BUDGET

Government forecasts 33% inflation, 4% growth in 2022 Budget

17-09-2021 14:07 Economy Minister Martín Guzmán meets deadline, submitting Budget bill to Congress at the last possible moment in the dead of night, as crisis raged in the ruling coalition.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

Argentina’s women left behind in post-pandemic jobs recovery

31-08-2021 13:23 As Argentina’s economy recovers from last year’s crash, young men who lost their jobs are being re-hired at a much faster pace than young women.

IMF BOOST

IMF’s special drawing rights gives boost to Central Bank reserves

23-08-2021 21:42 International Monetary Fund boost of special drawing rights lifts Argentina's Central Bank reserves to highest amount in almost three years.

Bloomberg

Government speeds up money printing ahead of election

28-07-2021 17:00 Central Bank was printing money for the Treasury at the fastest pace so far this year in July.

Bloomberg

Not even 50% inflation will make Argentina boost interest rates

23-07-2021 16:47 Central Bank rules out increasing interest rates for the foreseeable future, even as currency pressures mount and annual inflation climbs above 50%.

CORRUPTION & THE COURTS

Former vice-president Amado Boudou granted parole

23-07-2021 15:33 Argentina’s former vice-president, jailed for crimes related to the irregular acquisition of a major money-printing firm, granted parole after serving two-thirds of his 70-month prison sentence.

BLOOMBERG

Argentina slows peso devaluation in an attempt to curb inflation

01-07-2021 07:55 Policy makers see slower peso depreciation, managed by the Central Bank in a so-called 'crawling peg,' as a key tool to curb rising inflation expectations.

BRAZIL UNDER BOLSONARO

Brazil environment minister resigns amid graft investigation

24-06-2021 09:46 Ricardo Salles announces resignation, just over a month after the Supreme Court ordered an investigation into allegations he was involved in a timber-trafficking scandal.

Bloomberg

Crypto mining booms on cheap, subsidised energy in Argentina

31-05-2021 10:41 Bitcoin miners are capitalising on the inefficiencies of the country’s interventionist economy to reap outsize returns, fuelled by memories of currency busts and powered by government-subsidised electricity.

CORRUPTION SCANDAL

Brazil environment minister probed for timber trafficking

19-05-2021 16:33 Brazil Supreme Court orders investigation into Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, targeting a timber-trafficking ring allegedly involving him and other top officials in President Jair Bolsonaro's government.

COALITION TENSIONS

Kirchnerites pressure Guzmán over use of new IMF funds

08-05-2021 01:19 Kirchnerite wing of ruling Frente de Todos coalition wants economy minister to deploy new IMF special drawing rights funds in fight against Covid-19.

THE RUMOUR MILL

Question marks over Guzmán’s tenure as economy minister

04-05-2021 22:09 Martín Guzmán’s bid to force out Energy Undersecretary Federico Basualdo – frustrated for now despite counting on the support of President Alberto Fernández – has reignited rumours over the economy minister’s future and exposed infighting among the ruling coalition.

Economy Minister interview

Argentina has 'valuable support' from European nations for IMF debt talks

19-04-2021 13:44 Economy Minister says that Argentina is making "progress" in its debt restructuring talks with the International Monetary Fund and that the country is receiving “valuable support” from European leaders.

BLOOMBERG - ANALYSIS

Argentina resorts to unorthodox tools to fight 40% inflation

17-03-2021 13:24 Argentina is once again turning to a combination of unconventional policy tools to curb inflation, which is expected to near 40 percent this year.

INTERVIEW: PERIODISMO PURO

Marcela Losardo: 'Alberto Fernández has been preparing all his life for this job'

30-01-2021 07:46 Throughout the last 40 years, nobody has spent more time close to the president than his Justice Minister Marcela Losardo, his chief confidante.

by Jorge Fontevecchia

AND THAT REMINDS ME...

Grain means pain, corn meets scorn

16-01-2021 09:13 Maize in a maze would be as good a way as any of describing the government’s slapdash suspension of corn exports early in this new year.

by Michael Soltys

Coronavirus pandemic

Guzmán, Pesce, Massa in isolation after IMF officials gets Covid-19

15-11-2020 20:55 A number of government officials – including Martín Guzmán, Miguel Pesce and Sergio Massa – went into preventative isolation on Sunday, after a member of a visiting IMF mission tested positive for Covid-19.

Bloomberg

Argentina goes all-in to cut record gap with parallel peso

12-11-2020 16:42 Argentina is resorting to all necessary means to reduce the gap between its official and parallel exchange rates.

BLOOMBERG

Argentina turns to orthodox policy signals to ease dollar craze

06-11-2020 09:12 After tightening capital controls several times, Argentina's government has surprised investors by altering its tack in what appears to be an incipient effort to restore confidence.

FINANCIAL TURMOIL

Economy Ministry to halt Central Bank advances until end of 2020

03-11-2020 12:53 Economy Ministry says it will not ask the Central Bank for temporary advances of cash in November and December and would target local capital markets for financing instead.

BLOOMBERG

Government mulling incentives for job growth, says Labour minister

27-10-2020 13:16 Argentina is considering fiscal incentives to encourage companies to hire workers after unemployment spiked to the highest in at least 16 years amid the pandemic, says Labour Minister Claudio Moroni.

IN FOCUS

Economy Ministry takes steps to relieve pressure on currency markets

21-10-2020 18:59 Economy Ministry unveils new measures designed to reduce the pressures on volatile currency markets and ward off devaluation.

BLOOMBERG

Argentina bond rout blows up the template for debt restructuring

19-10-2020 20:40 Investors are giving up on Argentina, just six weeks after the government pulled off a US$65-billion restructuring.

BLOOMBERG

Argentina’s currency woes show no sign of easing

10-10-2020 08:31 Argentina’s hodge podge exchange rate regime is running out of steam.

Bloomberg

Government mulls temporary cut on some crop export taxes

29-09-2020 17:16 Government weighing temporary reduction on some export taxes to boost dollar inflows, Bloomberg reports.

Bloomberg

Pesce, Guzmán split over curbs on dollar purchases

17-09-2020 16:19 Argentina's economic team split on latest crackdown, as well as how long new rules should remain in place.

ECONOMIC POLICY

Central Bank optimistic over post-bond swap future

25-08-2020 19:20 Central Bank Governor Miguel Ángel Pesce says closure of the debt swap deal would relieve pressures on exchange markets and improve economic expectations.

BLOOMBERG - OPINION

Mohamed A. El-Erian: Argentina's debt proposal deserves support

07-07-2020 01:35 It would be in neither side's long-term interest to allow the theoretical best to be the enemy of the attainable good – what is now on the table warrants support by both Argentina and its creditors.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

INDEC: Economy contracted by 5.4% in first quarter of 2020

23-06-2020 20:37 Unemployment rose to 10.4% in the first three months of the year, before the coronavirus lockdown kicked in, national statistics bureau reveals.

EXPROPRIATION OF VICENTIN

Vicentin’s expropriation and how to break bad news

20-06-2020 09:26 A Peronist expropriation, and maybe even nationalisation, sounds like the best way to burn a lot of money straight into inefficient bureaucracy and corruption.

by Agustino Fontevecchia

BLOOMBERG

Argentina would ease currency controls if debt talks are successful

29-05-2020 14:56 Central Bank leaders implemented new controls Thursday night, restricting companies’ access to the foreign exchange market to pay for obligations overseas in dollars or other currencies.

MINISTRY POSITIONS

Production in a context of reduction

02-05-2020 10:58 Although always working with centre-left administrations, Kulfas has no political militancy or factional loyalty with his presence in the Cabinet entirely due to his personal links to President Fernández, as a leading member of his Grupo Callao think tank.

by Michael Soltys

CORRUPTION & THE COURTS

Ex-VP Boudou, jailed for corruption offences, granted house arrest

07-04-2020 18:44 Court granted house arrest to Boudou, who was vice-president during the second presidential term of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner from 2011 to 2015.

Coronavirus pandemic

Government postpones local debt payments due in dollars until end of year

06-04-2020 09:23 The government has issued a decree to defer close to US$9.8 billion in local dollar-denominated debt payments until 2021.

Bloomberg

Central Bank to pause run of rate cuts

12-03-2020 22:33 Central Bank plans to keep its policy rate unchanged, as it weighs the impact of sell-off on world markets.

RATE CUT

Central Bank cuts interest rate to 38%

06-03-2020 08:00 In its statement, the Central Bank’s committee said cooling prices justified the rate cut but that the economy wasn’t in the clear yet.

Bloomberg

BlackRock, Pimco fly to Argentina for private talk on debt

04-03-2020 16:58 Some of Argentina’s largest creditors flew to Buenos Aires for talks with Alberto Fernández’s government this week.

Bloomberg

Creditors offered bond swap ahead of key peso debt payment

04-03-2020 16:04 Argentina offers investors a swap that debt for new bonds maturing in 2019, in a move that could allow the government to avoid increasing money supply.

RATE CUT

Central Bank lowers key rate to 40%, extending cuts

19-02-2020 18:15 Central Bank chief Miguel Pesce justifies the rate cuts as a tool to help turn around Argentina’s economy, which is expected to contract for the third straight year in 2020.

RATE CUT

Central Bank cuts key interest rate for fifth time since December 10

30-01-2020 21:29 Rate floor cut to 48 percent on Thursday from 50 percent. Central bank chief Miguel Pesce has lowered it from 63 percent since taking office December 10.

FERNÁNDEZ'S FIRST MONTH

Fernández walks tightrope as he celebrates first month in office

09-01-2020 20:00 A month into his presidency, Peronist leader has embarked on an ambitious and risky juggling act in a bid to drag Argentina out of its worst economic crisis in almost 20 years.

Ley de Solidaridad

Cafiero: Government will approve emergency economic measures today

23-12-2019 17:23 "The enactment will be today," says Cabinet Chief.

INTERVIEW

Argentina is in 'virtual default,' declares President Fernández

23-12-2019 08:53 "It is not the same as 2001, but it is similar," Fernández said in an interview with TV programme La Cornice. "Today we are in virtual default."

BLOOMBERG – ANALYSIS

Fernández secures sweeping powers to conduct debt talks

22-12-2019 22:29 President will now have more authority to negotiate with creditors, raise worker salaries and hike taxes. Government secured passage with concessions including lower export taxes on oil, gas and mining, and tax relief for small farmers.

NEW CABINET

Meet Martín Guzmán, Argentina's next economy minister

09-12-2019 14:07 New economy minister, who is close to Nobel-Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, is seen as a critic of the International Monetary Fund.

Cabinet

Fernández appoints Martin Guzmán as economy minister

06-12-2019 19:57 "I have great confidence in him. He's a young man who is very prepared, and we have worked together for weeks," says Fernández.

TRANSITION 2019

Sandleris confirms resignation as Central Bank chief

05-12-2019 06:58 Central Bank chief confirms he will resign post ahead of December 10 handover. Argentina's monetary institution has had 61 presidents in the 84 years since its founding.