US ready to bail out Milei's Argentina, says White House

Source: Telegraph

America stands ready to bail out Javier Milei’s Argentina, the White House has said. Following a bout of severe market volatility in Argentina, Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, said “all options are on the table” to support the country. The offer of an economic lifeline comes after Mr Milei, the Argentine president and ally of Donald Trump, has spent $1.1bn (£820m) of the country’s $20bn reserves to prop up the peso. Mr Bessent and the US president will meet Mr Milei in New York on Tuesday as they seek to ease fears over the plunging peso and prevent Argentina from tipping into a debt-repayment meltdown. This will prove crucial to maintaining the Argentine president’s reform agenda, boosting markets and averting a political crisis.

“We remain confident that President Milei’s support for fiscal discipline and pro-growth reforms are necessary to break Argentina’s long history of decline,” Mr Bessent said on Monday. “Opportunities for private investment remain expansive, and Argentina will be great again.” He said the US could use Treasury funds to buy up the peso or Argentine government bonds, or the Federal Reserve could strike a currency-swap deal with Argentina’s central bank.

Argentina already has a $5bn swap arrangement with China. This deal was renewed in April, fuelling concern in Washington that Mr Milei, a vocal admirer of Mr Trump, was now playing both sides of the geopolitical fence. But Mr Milei’s recent stinging election loss and a corruption scandal involving his sister have handed the US an opening to gain more influence over his administration. Mr Milei on Friday said negotiations with the US were “very advanced, and it’s a matter of time”. The president’s political fortunes have worsened following an election in Buenos Aires Province earlier this month, when parties backing him won only 34pc of the vote. Support for the big-state Peronist party Fuerza Patria and its allies surged to 47pc, prompting a sharp drop in markets.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/09/22/us-ready-to-bail-out-milei-argentina-says-white-house/