Earlier on Thursday, Argentina's local currency sank in a widely-used parallel market to a record low of 438 pesos per U.S. dollar . The tightly-controlled official exchange rate stands at 218 pesos per greenback, about half the value of the black market rate. (Reporting by Nicolas Misculin; Editing by Kim Coghill)
Reuters Messaging: david.aliregarcia.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) BUENOS AIRES, April 20 (Reuters) - Argentina's central
bank approved a payment delay through the end of the year for
imports of services and freight transport worth $2 billion in an
effort to manage a severe shortage of foreign currency in bank
coffers needed for such transactions.
South America's second-largest economy after Brazil is
struggling with a prolonged financial crisis marked by
triple-digit inflation and made worse in recent months by a
historic drought that hit the country's main cash crops, which
usually attract significant flows of U.S. dollars to the central
bank.
The center-left government of President Alberto Fernandez
has over several months launched measures meant to boost the
inflow of foreign currency as well as to buck up a steadily
weakening local peso currency, but so far the efforts have
mostly met with disappointment.
The latest move by the central bank, which is closely
aligned with Fernandez's government, aims to staunch the
bleeding and put a cap on the flight of foreign capital.
The bank said in a statement that it "approved measures...
that together represent a postponement of payments in foreign
currency for $2 billion until the end of the year."
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