Argentina

  • Argentina Lifts Rates to World-High, Seeks IMF Aid to Save Peso

    Argentina’s currency crisis deepened on Thursday as an emergency interest-rate increase to 60 percent failed to stop jittery investors from pulling their money out of the country.

    The peso extended losses after the bank raised its benchmark measure by 15 percentage points to a global high. The hike, the second this month, was the latest attempt by policy makers to defend a currency that’s lost more than half its value this year. A day earlier, President Mauricio Macri shocked the nation with an appeal for quicker payouts from the International Monetary Fund, which said it’s considering the request.

    The peso was down about 12 percent against the dollar at 3:05 p.m. in Buenos Aires, after a daily decline that at one point approached 20 percent. It’s the steepest loss since Macri devalued the currency right after taking office in December 2015 -- and it’s reviving memories of the crash that led to debt default and social upheaval almost two decades ago. Bloomberg