Argentina made repeated attempts at exchange rate-based stabilisation, in conditions of weak monetary control, before setting up an augmented currency board arrangement in 1991; the collapse of that arrangement in 2001 led to a period of stabilisation, but towards the end of the period direct controls of various kinds were being re-introduced, until a change of course from late 2015.
| Years | Targets and attainment | Classification |
| 1974-6 | multiple exchange rates, direct controls on bank lending, bank deposits nationalised (from 1973) | multiple direct controls MDC |
| 1977-90 | bank deposits denationalised, central bank gets more autonomy, interest rates still controlled, some liberalisation of forex market; repeated unsuccessful attempts at exchange rate-based stabilisation, each ending with overvaluation; alternation of multiple and unified exchange rates; recurring fiscal dominance; monetary control weak with poor instruments poorly wielded, real interest rates repeatedly negative; central bank remains important source of credit to private as well as public sector; some parallel financial markets | unstructured discretion UD |
| 1991-2001 | currency board with some monetary policy (‘convertibility plan’): central bank can vary reserve requirements and has some small scope to buy government securities and to lend to private sector, also limited role as lender of last resort | augmented currency board ACB |
| 2002 | exit from currency board late 2001 in conditions of forex and banking crisis and government debt default, followed by period of political and economic policy incoherence, in terms of both instruments and objectives; emergency measures of various kinds | unstructured discretion UD |
| 2003-23 | some initial economic and financial stabilisation with bank and debt restructuring, economic recovery from late 2002; but from mid-2000s gradual but accelerating recourse to direct controls of various kinds (including from 2012 import and some exchange controls), and monetary financing of budget deficits (central bank independence weakened 2012); significant dollarisation; some use of wide but ineffective monetary targets; exchange rate heavily managed, with sharp depreciation January 2014, floated from December 2015 under new (non-Peronist) government (with continuing depreciations); capital account opened, gradualist fiscal consolidation; inflation targeting formally adopted late 2016 but requires major institutional and operational changes, 2017 and later targets well overshot (expectations unanchored); balance of payments crisis summer 2019 (before election and new Peronist government) despite Stand-By Arrangement 2018, which was cancelled because of implementation failures in mid-2020; big adverse effect from Covid-19, monetary financing of increased government spending, ongoing inflation-depreciation spiral, 2022 government asks again for IMF support; crawling peg from 2020; from late 2021 sharply rising interest rates and rate of crawl, more forex restrictions; mid-2023 attempt to reset macro policy with additional depreciation and monetary and fiscal tightening; new government from November 2023 brings stricter stabilisation policies including end to monetary financing of deficits and sharp depreciation, with projected move to new regime of ‘currency competition’ | loosely structured discretion LSD |
Selected IMF references: RED 1974 p31; RED 1977 p25, 40-1, 50-2; RED 1984 p34-5; RED 1990 Appendix IV; BP 1992, pp1-11; RED 1993 pp17-19; SI 2002 chII; SR 2005 pp20-1; SI 2006 pp4-9; SR 2006 pp16-18; Argentina Economic Developments 2013/2014/2015 (all published February 2016; no regular consultations between 2006 and 2016); SI 2016 pp92-109; SR 2016 pp21-4; SR 2017 pp17-19; Ex-post Evaluation of Exceptional Access under 2018 SBA, December 2021, pp1-4, 22-4, 32-8; SR 2022 pp5-11, 20-4; 3rd Review under EFF… December 2022 pp7-8; 5th and 6th Reviews under EFF… August 2023 pp10-11, 14-15; 8th Review under EFF… May 2024 pp6-7, 18, 39.
Additional source: Wolf et al. (2008, esp. ch8).
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