Overview
- Financial Times reporting says senior U.S. officials held August meetings with dollarization specialist Steve Hanke to examine ways to expand use of the dollar in vulnerable economies.
- Argentina is repeatedly cited as the leading potential case due to chronic loss of confidence in the peso, alongside Lebanon, Pakistan, Ghana, Turkey, Egypt, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
- Kush Desai, a White House spokesperson, confirmed the meetings were consultative and both Washington and Buenos Aires say formal dollarization is not currently under consideration.
- Argentina’s economy minister Luis Caputo has said the country lacks sufficient reserves to dollarize in the short term, highlighting practical constraints to any rapid move.
- The IMF warns a shift to the dollar could lock in low growth by ceding monetary policy to the U.S. Federal Reserve, as analysts also note U.S. tools like a reported $20 billion Treasury–BCRA swap and stablecoin regulation as complementary avenues to bolster dollar influence.