Argentina's New Plan Hopes to Bring Calm
February 4, 2002
Argentina's economics minister announced yet another new economic plan on Monday that will partially lift a freeze on cash withdrawals and fully float the peso.
Banks in the troubled South American country, which saw more protests over the weekend, will be closed Monday and Tuesday, while the government implements the plan.
Until now, Argentinians were only allowed to withdraw up to $1,000 cash from their banks each month. On Friday, the country's supreme court ruled against the policy. Three days later, the government said it would adhere to the ruling - at least partially.
Argentina has plunged into a state of chaos since bloody riots against the withdrawal curbs toppled the country's elected government last Fall. The country has billions in foreign debt and has watched the peso fall in international trading since ridding it of its decade-old peg to the US dollar.
The government wants the economy to run on pesos, the currency it devalued last month, Economic Minister Jorge Remes Lenicov said late Sunday. Dollar bank loans will also be converted into pesos.
Tying the currency to the dollar ended the hyperinflation of the 1980s but made Argentinian products uncompetitive on the world market.