Abstract

CASTILLO-PONCE, Ramon Amadeo  and  S. LAI, Kon. On Argentina’s Currency Crisis of 2018. Lect. Econ. [online]. 2020, n.92, pp.223-233. ISSN 0120-2596.  https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.le.n9208.

Argentina painfully became the world’s riskiest sovereign borrower behind Venezuela in 2018. Its national currency, the Argentine peso, lost more than 50 % in value against the dollar in just the first 8 months of the year, contributing to rising inflation and soaring interest rates. Argentina had to ask for financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the country obtained a $50-billion bailout package in June, the biggest loan in the IMF’s history. In addition to the IMF’s financing deal, Argentina’s central bank jacked up its benchmark interest rate to 60 % — the highest in the world — in late August in a struggle to fight galloping inflation and stabilize the peso, which plunged to record lows.

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