{"id":1912,"date":"2025-04-14T16:23:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T08:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/84news.top\/?p=1912"},"modified":"2025-04-14T16:23:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T08:23:11","slug":"argentinas-peso-sinks-after-currency-controls-eased","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/14\/argentinas-peso-sinks-after-currency-controls-eased\/","title":{"rendered":"Argentina's peso sinks after currency controls eased"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The peso was trading at just under 1,200 to the greenback, surging toward the middle of a new trading band, and testing the nerve of Argentine authorities.<\/p>\n

Easing currency restrictions is a major political gamble for Milei — a weaker peso would make Argentine exports more competitive, but hike the cost of imports, potentially hurting consumers.<\/p>\n

He faces midterm elections later this year and received an ominous warning from voters in a provincial election Sunday, when his party finished third. <\/p>\n

But the self-styled “anarcho-capitalist” has vowed to fix Argentina’s perennially crisis-hit economy whatever the cost.<\/p>\n

Since coming to office in 2023 Milei has slashed spending, fired tens of thousands of public sector workers and undone a raft of controls that economists believe skewed the economy.<\/p>\n

The country has needed 23 IMF bailouts since 1950, been iced out of international bond markets and has often spent more than it could borrow.<\/p>\n

Markets have reacted positively to Milei’s reforms but he faces a fierce domestic backlash from opponents who have launched a series of general strikes.<\/p>\n

“The country appears closer to a semblance of macroeconomic stability than at any point since the 2000s,” said Kimberley Sperrfechter, an emerging markets specialist at Capital Economics. <\/p>\n

‘Waiting to see’<\/p>\n

On Monday, Milei won the “full support” of Washington in the form of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who backed “Milei’s bold economic reforms” during a visit to Buenos Aires.<\/p>\n

The United States backed the IMF deal, along with an additional $12 billion from the World Bank and $10 billion from the Inter-American Development Bank.<\/p>\n

But Bessent poured cold water on the idea of a direct credit line from the United States. “That’s not under consideration,” he told Bloomberg TV.<\/p>\n

Before Friday’s currency move, the government had strictly controlled the peso and access to dollars, leading to a complex plethora of exchange rates.<\/p>\n

The central bank had to repeatedly intervene to protect the peso, spending scarce foreign currency reserves.<\/p>\n

If the peso reaches the upper limit of the band, which many economists believe it will, that would mean an eye-watering 30 percent depreciation. <\/p>\n

But Milei remained bullish on Monday, telling El Observador radio, “today, we are freer.”<\/p>\n

“Today, there is no longer an ‘official dollar,’ there is only one dollar, which is the market dollar,” he added.<\/p>\n

On Florida Street in downtown Buenos Aires, where black market dollars are traditionally exchanged, there was very little activity Monday, contrary to fears of a rush on the safe-haven greenback.<\/p>\n

“Everyone is waiting to see what happens,” a trader told AFP.<\/p>\n

There are fears that loosening exchange controls could fuel inflation, which has dropped under Milei from 211 percent in 2023 to 118 percent last year.<\/p>\n

Last year, Argentina recorded its first budget surplus in a decade, but the collateral damage has been a loss of purchasing power, jobs, and consumer spending.<\/p>\n

Milei promised that by mid-2026, “the problem of inflation in Argentina will be over.” <\/p>\n

\u00a9 2025 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buenos Aires (AFP) \u2013 <\/span> Argentina’s peso slumped more than 11 percent against the US dollar Monday, after Javier Milei’s libertarian government loosened currency controls to win a $20 billion IMF bailout. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Issued on: 14\/04\/2025 – 18:23<\/span>Modified: 15\/04\/2025 – 00:41<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Argentina<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-1912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-db"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}