The forlorn hope continues ...
Argentina: Don’t Waste Yet Another Opportunity to Dollarize
On October 9, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent
announced that the US has bought Argentine pesos and finalized a $20 billion currency swap framework with the country’s Central Bank (BCRA). The specifics of the swap, along with forms of assistance the Trump administration has indicated it is ready to provide to support the Milei administration, are expected to be announced on October 14 as the Argentine president meets with President Trump in Washington.
As Bloomberg reported, “Trump and Bessent are making
a bet on a nation that’s defaulted and devalued repeatedly over the past several decades. The goal is to help their political ally, President Javier Milei, notch a win in the Oct. 26 midterm elections, and calm markets unsettled by fears of his leftist rivals returning to power.”
This unusual direct intervention from the US Treasury followed the Argentine Treasury’s spending of at least
$1.5 billion over the past week in an attempt to stabilize the peso, which continued to lose value nonetheless. Unfortunately, peso volatility has long been the norm in Argentina, rather than the exception.
Major peso collapses have occurred in 1952, 1958, 1967, 1975, 1985, 1989, 2001, and 2018/19.