Overview
- After a $20 billion Treasury currency swap and direct peso purchases, officials announced another $20 billion to be raised from private banks and sovereign funds.
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent detailed the private financing tranche, which follows the initial intervention aimed at easing pressure on Argentina’s central bank reserves.
- President Javier Milei met Donald Trump at the White House on October 14, where Trump said U.S. generosity would depend on Milei’s allies prevailing in the legislative elections.
- Markets swung on the signals: the peso strengthened more than 8% in the days after the first announcement, Buenos Aires stocks fell about 7% following Trump’s warning, then rebounded over 4% after the added financing was unveiled.
- China’s embassy in Argentina criticized U.S. messaging on regional influence, and U.S. Democrats attacked the package during a federal shutdown, with Hakeem Jeffries calling it “corruption in real time.”