The International Monetary Fund has trimmed its 2021 growth forecast for Argentina, predicting the economy will grow by 4.5 percent this year. Previously, the multilateral lender had estimated growth of 4.9 percent this year, but the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic and the fiscal constraints facing the country persuaded IMF officials to lower their forecast.  … Read more

Soybean meal exports from Argentina, the world’s largest supplier of the cattle feed, are recovering strongly after labour strikes decimated soybean processing in December. So far this month until Wednesday, 2.16 million metric tons of flour have been shipped from the main ports, according to data from the Argentine shipping agency Alpemar. That figure exceeds … Read more

Economic activity contracted 3.7 percent in November 2020 year-on-year, the INDEC national statistics bureau revealed Tuesday. The data means that activity slumped by 10.6 percent in the first 11 months of 2020, when compared to 2019, mainly as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. However, activity did rise 1.4 percent in November from the previous … Read more

Argentina’s fiscal deficit skyrocketed last year to its highest since at least 1993, as the pandemic forced the government to increase social spending. The primary deficit, which excludes interest payments, rose to 6.5 percent of gross domestic product in 2020 from 0.4 percent a year earlier, the government said on Wednesday. With debt payments included, … Read more

Argentina will not need a new version of the Ingreso Familiar de Emergencia (IFE) scheme, implemented last year during the coronavirus pandemic, a senior government official has told Bloomberg. The government is working from a base scenario in which restrictions on the circulation of citizens will not be restricted nationwide, as was the case last … Read more

THE WEEK IN CORONAVIRUS There were 1,853,830 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 46,575 deaths at press time yesterday as against 1,783,047 cases and 45,227 deaths the previous Friday. One of those fatalities was Juan Carlos Copes, 89 – the veteran tango performer who spread the fame of the dance worldwide – during last weekend. On … Read more

A one-of-its-kind plan to tax the wind in Argentina has drawn scorn from clean-energy companies, who say the move threatens climate-change goals that are already looking unattainable from Latin America to Asia. Puerto Madryn, a city on the Atlantic coast where gusts are coveted by wind developers like Genneia SA, wants to tax the megawatts … Read more

Argentina is continuing to work with the International Monetary Fund on a deal to restructure US$ 44 billion in debt owed to the multilateral lender, President Alberto Fernández said Thursday. The Peronist leader delivered the remark via a post on Twitter, following a video call with IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva. “This morning I had a … Read more

In the 99 years since it was founded to pump the oil fields of Patagonia, Argentina’s energy driller YPF SA has been whipsawed by countless booms and busts. If global oil markets weren’t collapsing, it seemed, then Argentina was mired in a debt crisis that was wreaking havoc on the whole nation’s finances. Never, though, … Read more

THE WEEK IN CORONAVIRUS Argentina crossed the grim threshold of 45,000 deaths from Covid-19 on Thursday to close the week at 45,227 deaths and 1,783,047 confirmed cases of contagion since last March. The latest stage of quarantine (still not defined at press time for last Saturday’s edition) ended up delegating new restrictions to the provinces … Read more