At a press conference last Wednesday, Treasury Department chief Scott Bessent said the fund would operate in parallel with a new $20 billion swap line. for Argentina, which will provide this country with support in the amount of USD 40 billion. He also explained that the United States would continue to support Argentina financially as long as President Javier Milei’s government pursues “good policies,” regardless of the outcome of the general elections that will be held in late October. A day earlier, President Donald Trump announced that if Mileia’s party lost, the US would no longer be so generous to Argentina.
Bessent first announced the start of purchases of Argentine pesos on October 9. He said then that his ministry was prepared to take extraordinary measures to stabilize the markets. A few days later, he confirmed that direct US interventions in the currency market were continuing.
Donald Trump reaches out to an ally. “They are dying”
Direct currency interventions are undertaken by the United States extremely rarely. The purchase of Argentine pesos is intended to support Mileia, who is Donald Trump’s most important ideological ally in Latin America.
Journalists asked the US president about the case, pointing to the situation of American farmers affected by the trade war with China. The Middle Kingdom began buying large amounts of soy from Argentina, one of the competing US producers.
—Argentina is fighting for survival, young lady. You have no idea about this. Do you understand what this means? They are dying, replied Donald Trump.
Pre-election efforts of the President of Argentina
Mileio’s government has depleted foreign exchange reserves in recent weeks, trying to prevent a sudden decline in the value of the peso and a return to inflation ahead of parliamentary elections in which it hopes to win additional seats in Congress.
Since being sworn in in December 2023, Milei has been pursuing a radical policy of cutting budget spending to pull the country out of the economic crisis. It seeks to dismantle the welfare state that has been built for decades and rebuild the country according to the neoliberal model. However, his proposed drastic reforms encounter resistance on the streets and in Congress, where the president’s party does not have a majority.
