Argentina's cash grab

published 15 January 2010

Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has "developed an insatiable appetite for other people's cash", says The Economist.

She has hiked taxes on farmers and nationalised $30bn of private pension assets. Last week, she tried to grab $6.6bn of the central bank's foreign currency reserves and sacked bank chief Martin Redrado when he refused.

The government said it planned to use the money to settle defaulted debts with bondholders hit by the country's default on almost $100bn of government bonds in 2001. By restructuring the defaulted debt, it can return to international capital markets.

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The government has also indulged in "serial asset grabbing" to sustain a populist spending spree, says the FT. The move comes ahead of an election this year and after Kirchner's party lost its majority in both houses of parliament.

Argentina is already a "byword for wayward policy-making". This episode is "a reminder of the acute political risks that still face investors in Argentina" as it plans its return to global debt markets, says Capital Economics. The latest rally in Argentine markets is now "looking very tired indeed".

Expect the peso to slide to $4.25 (from $3.80 now) by the end of this year.