\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed on Tuesday that his office has signed a US$20 billion currency swap with Argentina\u2019s central bank as part of an \u201ceconomic stabilization agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Javier Milei\u2019s efforts to reverse his nation\u2019s decades of decline, stemming from the radical leftism of the Peronists, are of critical importance,\u201d Bessent said in an X post. \u201cArgentina now has the opportunity to embrace economic freedom, and our stabilization agreement is a bridge to a better economic future for Argentina, not a bailout.\u201d<\/p>\n
The deal had already been announced by Bessent weeks ago and was confirmed on Monday by the Argentine Central Bank (BCRA). The swap will allow the country \u201cto respond to conditions that could lead to episodes of volatility in the foreign exchange and capital markets,\u201d according to the BCRA.<\/p>\n
You may also be interested in: Trump\u2019s Argentina bailout turns domestic issue as opposition grows in the US<\/p>\n
Bessent confirmed the motives for the agreement are strictly geopolitical. \u201cWe do not want another failed state in Latin America, and a strong, stable Argentina as a good neighbor is explicitly in the strategic interest of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
President Milei said in an interview on Monday that a swap agreement is a \u201ccurrency exchange\u201d between two countries. \u201cWe have a credit for US$20 billion, and they have a credit equal to that number in pesos. It is only activated when needed,\u201d he told Tucum\u00e1n\u2019s Canal 8 channel.<\/p>\n
He added that Argentina would use the swap line to make 2026 debt payments in case the country cannot operate in the forex market \u201cdue to the country risk being too high,\u201d which \u201cwould be taking debt to pay for debt.\u201d<\/p>\n
The announcement has stirred reactions in both countries. In the U.S., critics of President Donald Trump question why he is giving his Argentine counterpart, Javier Milei, such a large amount of money. A couple of weeks ago, a group of senators from the Democratic Party already introduced a bill trying to halt the initiative. On Monday, a congressman asked Bessent for details regarding the support package.<\/p>\n
You may also be interested in: Argentina\u2019s elections: an explainer for Donald Trump<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed on Tuesday that his office has signed a US$20 billion currency swap with Argentina\u2019s central bank as part of an \u201ceconomic stabilization agreement.\u201d \u201cPresident Javier Milei\u2019s efforts to reverse his nation\u2019s decades of decline, stemming from the radical leftism of the Peronists, are of critical importance,\u201d Bessent said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":1502,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,61,59,82],"tags":[96,89,86,100],"class_list":["post-1501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economics","category-javier-milei","category-politics","category-scott-bessent","tag-economics","tag-javier-milei","tag-politics","tag-scott-bessent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}