It is currently arranging a loan from the IMF and from other official lenders that will be the biggest external bail-out since Brazil’s in January 1999. The rate of unemployment is 15%, wages are falling and output is stagnant. As for monetary stability, interest rates on Argentina’s bonds have lately been ten percentage points higher than the US equivalent—reflecting not fears of a devaluation, but the risk of default. Part of the reason for this distress is that the strong dollar has dragged the peso to damaging heights; also, with monetary policy foreclosed, it is hard for the authorities to stimulate demand. Interior design Does this show that the currency-board regime was a mistake?
