Argentine economic growth to speed up from 2017, minister says

Jan 19, 2016 According to Alfonso Prat-Gay, Argentine finance minister, the country’s economy will edge higher this year as the new government lifts interventionist controls.

Speaking at a news conference with foreign journalists in Buenos Aires, he said:

“With our numbers we calculate an estimated (economic growth) of between 0.5 percent and 1 percent this year in 2016, but above all with much stronger growth in the second half of the year,”

In a bid to boost its foreign reserves, Prat-Gay said the country’s central bank will, in coming days, announce a $4 to 6 billion dollar loan from international investment banks.

“In the coming days the central bank is going to announce the loan from international banks to Argentina’s central bank in exchange for bonds from the central bank and this I think is going to be between 4 and 6 billion dollars and as such we are going to be relaxed in terms of being above the rule (regarding minimum reserves to lift currency control and help economy recover),”