AP/Victor R. Caivano
Argentina's new Finance Minister Luis Caputo arrives for a news conference at Casa Rosada presidential palace in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Dec. 30, 2016. Caputo and Argentina's new Treasury Minister Nicolas Dujovne replace outgoing Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay who was fired by President Mauricio Macri on Monday, Dec. 26.
- The Argentine peso was up more than 1% versus the dollar Friday.
- That's after the president of Argentina's central bank stepped down.
- Follow the Argentine peso in real time here.
The Argentine peso is climbing against the US dollar after a switchup in leadership at its central bank, which hasn't been able to prop up the country's flailing currency despite landing the biggest International Monetary Fund bailout in history.
The peso was up 1.15% versus the dollar at 10 a.m. ET. It had hit an all-time low last month at 24.0050 per dollar.
Outgoing Banco Central de la República Argentina President Federico Sturzenegger resigned Thursday, just short of a week after the IMF reached a staff-level agreement to provide a $50 billion credit-line amid a looming financial crisis in Argentina.
Strurzenegger, who slashed interest rates in January despite soaring inflation, seemed to claim partial responsibility for the peso's selloff in his resignation letter. The currency dropped more than 46% versus the US dollar this year, even after BCRA last month raised interest rates three times in one week to 40%.
Hours after Strurzenegger's resignation, President Mauricio Macri announced he wants Finance Minister Luis Caputo to take over as president of the central bank. As part of the unusual nomination, Macri said in a statement, the country's finance ministry will be combined with the treasury ministry.
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