Argentina's central bank says it signed $20 bil. currency swap deal with US

Argentina's central bank said on Monday it signed a $20 billion exchange rate stabilization agreement with the U.S. Treasury Department, six days ahead of a key midterm election. The central bank's statement said the agreement sets forth terms for bilateral currency swap operations between the U.S. and Argentina, but it provided no technical details. "Such operations will allow the BCRA to expand its set of monetary and exchange rate policy instruments, including the liquidity of its international reserves," the central bank said, using an acronym for itself. It said the pact was part of a comprehensive strategy to enhance its ability to respond to foreign exchange and capital markets volatility. The U.S. Treasury did not immediately respond to a request for details on the new swap line and had not issued its own statement about the arrangement. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week that the arrangement would be backed by International Monetary Fund Special Drawing Rights held in the Treasury's Exchange Stabilization Fund that will be converted to dollars. Bessent has said that tWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times