Argentina plans emergency economic measures to avoid big devaluation

Argentina will announce on Monday a new round of emergency government measures, including raising interest rates 600 basis points to 97 per cent, to try to stave off the country’s worst economic crisis in two decades.

The Peronist government is desperate to avoid a big devaluation before elections in October. But the South American country is also running out of foreign exchange reserves as Argentines abandon the fast-devaluing peso and embrace the US dollar.