The U.S. Treasury finalized a $20 billion currency swap framework with Argentina and bought pesos in the open market on Thursday, making good on President Donald Trump’s pledge to prop up the wobbling country and 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,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in announcing the actions on X.
Argentina’s 2035 bond rose 4.5 cents to trade at 60.5 cents on the dollar, while the peso closed at 1,418 per dollar, up 0.8% on the day after falling 3% earlier.
Local stocks (.MERV), opens new tab rose 5.3% Thursday. Last month they touched a 2025 low, days before Bessent’s initial support pledge. Argentine stocks traded in U.S. exchanges (.BKAR), opens new tab rallied 13%.
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 has a $20 billion loan program with Argentina.
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva applauded the U.S. move in a post on X, saying the IMF was “fully aligned in support of the country’s strong economic program, anchored on fiscal discipline and a robust FX regime to facilitate reserve accumulation.”
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.
Bessent had previously pledged, opens new tab support for Argentina from the Treasury’s $221 billion Exchange Stabilization Fund, and its majority holdings of IMF reserve assets known as Special Drawing Rights.
Speaking later on “The Ingraham Angle show” of Fox News Channel, Bessent insisted that the action was not a bailout, saying that no money was transferred to Buenos Aires and the ESF “has never lost money, it’s not going to lose money here.”
He added that the assistance provided strategic U.S. benefits, including pledges by Argentina’s right-wing president, Javier Milei, of “getting China out of Argentina” and its openness to allow U.S. companies to develop its rare earths and uranium resources.