Argentina announces austerity measures to deal with currency crisis
Argentina will implement austerity measures in a bid to stabilise the struggling peso, as the president announced that the country is facing an emergency.
Taxes on exports will rise and "about half" of the government ministries will be abolished, President Mauricio Macri said in a televised address.
Read more: Argentina to make fresh cuts in bid to save peso
He did not specify the exact measures but said that export taxes were a "bad tax" and that the situation was "an emergency," Reuters reported.
The government will modify export taxes for grains, oilseed and their by-products. More details are expected to be announced later today.
Treasury minister Nicolas Dujovne is preparing to travel to Washington tomorrow to meet International Monetary Fund (IMF) head Christine Lagarde. Argentina has called on the IMF for the early release of a $50bn (£37.7bn) credit line.
The three-year deal was agreed in June, with $15bn released then and a second instalment due next month. As part of the IMF negotiations, the country agreed to cut its primary deficit to 1.3 per cent of gross domestic product under the programme.
Read more: Argentina hikes interest rates after peso plunge