Argentina’s president struggles with a sinking economy

IN 1991 Mauricio Macri, son of a wealthy industrialist, was kidnapped. His captors bundled him into a coffin, drove to a hideout and held him for two weeks before his family paid a $6m ransom. Mr Macri, Argentina’s president since 2015, says the ordeal persuaded him to abandon business and contribute to society by taking up politics. His second career has proved hardly less traumatic. Argentina’s plunging currency led Mr Macri to confess on September 3rd that “these were the worst five months of my life since my kidnapping.”

Another recession, the second since Mr Macri took office, now seems inevitable. In May the central bank raised interest rates to 40% to tackle a currency crisis that has seen the peso lose more than half its value against the dollar since the start of the year. The next month the government secured a $50bn credit line from the IMF, the largest in the fund’s history. In August, as the peso continued its slump, the central bank raised rates to 60%. None of these measures bought more than temporary relief. Mr Macri has appealed to the IMF to accelerate the loan payments. A new round of negotiations with the fund began on September 4th and have yet to conclude.