Capital Economy, Business and Finance
Argentina’s new president came to power last year promising shock therapy to get his country out of its worst economic crisis in 20 years. He also proposed ditching the endlessly devalued peso for the dollar. The latter hasn’t happened. Argentina doesn’t have enough US currency to go round. But the former – including plans to raise taxes, cut spending and deliver a budget surplus this year – has paid dividends in Washington, where the FT says the IMF has agreed to release $4.7 billion to help Javier Milei’s government stay afloat. The IMF has unbent despite Argentina’s failure to meet the terms of a much larger loan last year, but its decision is at least partly self-interested: much of the $4.7 billion will go straight back to the fund in interest payments.