(Reuters) -The U.S. government purchased Argentine pesos and finalized a $20 billion currency swap framework with Argentina’s central bank, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday, sending the peso and Argentine dollar bonds sharply higher.
“The U.S. Treasury is prepared, immediately, to take whatever exceptional measures are warranted to provide stability to markets,” Bessent said in a post on X.
Argentina’s 2035 bond rose 4.6 cents to trade at 60.58 cents on the dollar while the peso closed at 1,425 per dollar, up 0.8% on the day, following sessions of managed weakness with intervention from the Argentine treasury.
Bessent issued his statement at the end of four days of meetings with Argentine Finance Minister Luis Caputo that also involved officials from the International Monetary Fund, which in April granted Argentina a new $20 billion loan program.
Bessent said that Caputo had informed him of his close coordination with the IMF on Argentina’s reform commitments, adding: “Argentina’s policies, when anchored on fiscal discipline, are sound. Its exchange rate band remains fit for purpose.”
A spokesperson for the IMF could not immediately be reached for comment on the U.S. actions.
“Argentina faces a moment of acute illiquidity,” Bessent said in his post. “The international community – including @IMFNews – is unified behind Argentina and its prudent fiscal strategy, but only the United States can act swiftly. And act we will. To that end, we directly purchased Argentine pesos.”
A U.S. Treasury spokesperson declined to provide any further details, including on the amount of pesos purchased and how the $20 billion currency swap line would be structured.
(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya and Ismail Shakil; Editing by Chris Reese and Cynthia Osterman)
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